Oil System

Before I started on installing the oil lines, I needed to install the bell housing where the oil is stored and the transmission that is attached to the bell housing.  Although I used the engine hoist to lift it, a friend of mine came over and helped guide it into place.  We ran into a couple of small issues but overall it went pretty easily and the race car looks just a little bit more like a race car with it installed.

I also wanted to install the exhaust because I obviously don't want to have any lines close to it.  The header is integrated into the engine so there is only one exhaust pipe attached -- very simple!

Instead of an oil cooler, I'm going to use a small oil/water heat exchanger because these engines seem to run pretty cool.  The water runs through a tube in it and the oil runs around that water tube and like the name says, the two of them exchange heat and the temperature between them equalizes.  The heat exchanger mounts to the left side radiator so I installed that side pod and put the radiator, pipes, and heat exchanger in place.

Now I could start running some oil lines.  Attached is one of the packages from HPD which shows some of the fittings that I used on the oil lines.

The oil flows from the oil tank in the bell housing through the in-line oil filter and then to the right side of the engine and then comes out the left, through the heat exchanger and back to the oil tank.  Most of the oil lines are -10 but the line coming out of the engine is -12.  Here is a pic of the fitting coming out of the oil tank.  This fitting actually came with the car when I bought it so I re-used it.

Below is a pic of the in-line filter installed and a pic of the fitting on the left side of the engine where the oil goes into it.  Btw, most Van Diemens have the oil tank fitting on the right side but for some reason mine is on the left.  As a result, the 3 or 4ft of -10 hose that HPD provided wasn't enough and I needed to buy a couple more feet.

And that is as far as I got because the heat exchanger has two -10 fittings and I need it to have one -12 so I will have to see if I can order one.  HPD also shipped about 4 ft of -12 hose but the fitting on top of the oil tank is -10 so I'm going to order a few more feet of -10 hose so that I can attach a -10 line from the heat exchanger to the oil tank.  Once I have what I need, the oil system should be finished up pretty quickly.

Btw,  it was a balmy 19 degrees outside this morning so the garage was very cold!  Here is how I get the garage up to temperature on these cold mornings!!