Front Oil tank installation

[scca_ita]

Hi

I am thinking of installing a front oil tank. I am familiar with the SmartRacing Products tank. But it is too much much money for me right now.

I am interested in hearing experiences with the installation and tank recommendations.

Thanks

[Early_S_Man]

Are you thinking of in front of the rear axle and right rear tire ... or all the way forward to the smuggler's trunk, or thereabouts? The reason I ask is that Bruce Anderson has stated that he has seen several race cars with destroyed engines ... as the result of improper planning, and installation of the oil system plumbing! Something to ponder before you add several yards of additional tubing/hose to the supply line for the pressure pump AND the scavenge circuit!

[campbellcj]

I have also heard that some of the aftermarket alloy racing oil tanks on the market are unbaffled and can potentially lead to oil sloshing and pickup/return issues under high g-loads.

[addictionMS]

I just finished putting an oiltank in the smugglers box on my race car. I can tell you it is no easy task.

I started with a 1968 chassis, they as it turns out have a smaller smugglers box than the 1969+ versions, so I had to fab a new box. After that was done I think my task was easier than a stock 1969+. however it was still tough.

The first steps are fitting the tank into the smugglers box, it is a tight fit, and you need to block off the hole so the steering mechanism is not affected by the oil tank. The reccommened mounting instructions for the tank are not to sloidly mount it in the car, there are infact no abs on the tank to mount it. So how you mount it is by putting a larger garbage bag in the hole, wrapping another garbage bag around the tanks. Then you need to find youself some two part expanding foam. Mix up some foam, pour it in the hole, and as it is expanding push the tank into the hole and make a form fitted foam support for the tank. I had to do this about four times before I got it right, and boy let me tell youit is tough getting the tank out after the foam sets, and it is tough getting the bad foam out of the hole if you don't get it right.

once the foam form is made, you need to pull the tank out without damaging the foam. Again this tokk quite a while to get it done. Once out, cut a hole for the drain, cut the hole for the suction side of the tank (passangers feet) and add a strap to hole the tank in place incase of a rollover.

Now the tank is inplace. This is mostly time not money, now comes the money part, the tank is cheap compaired to the cost of all the hoses and fittings.

You need to run AN-20 on the suction side, so minimum you will need two AN-20 hose ends, realisitcally you will want to do what I did and run a hard line through the car, plus the AN-20 hose will collapse under vaccume so you need to line it with a coil support. hose and support together cost about $50/foot, hose ends are between $50-$85 per end. So with hard line you are talking 4 hose ends, about 6-8 feet of hose. Plus the hard line and weldable fittings, and labour to put them together. Lastly you need to get a AN-20 fitting on the the motor, So i added the oil coler block off and AN-20 fitting (BTW I got most of this stuff from Smart Racing) count on another $300.
Now you have the suction side done, on to the pressure side....

AN-16 all the way, Similar deal, only no internal support coil needed, and a lot more hose because you now need to run all the way up to the oil coolers, which you now need two because you no longer have one on the engine, becaure you added the block off and oil filter where the cooler used to be. AN-16 is less expensive, about $30-$60 per hose end, and $20/foot (can't quite remember the costs). Remeber there are 8 hose ends if you use a hard line and two oil coolers.

All these hoses, suction and pressure need to be run as close to the ground and as flat as possible, ususally inside the car.


Now the pressure side is done...but wait, you still need to run the breather hose. Yup, from the rear to he oil tank you need one more hose, much more simple, just run it from the breather on the motor to the breather on the tank, and one more off the tank to a catch can in the trunk. At high revs the engine will push oil at a steady flow through the breather, plus in this type of system you find your oil level by filling the tank until you push about a qt of oil out the breather into the overflow tank, then you know the tank is full.

Now you are done. Hope that helps set expectations. I can get pictures of all this if you are interested, I took a few along the way and the car is in the garage fr any others you might want.


Jim