Oil everywhere
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AWDC 2022 Round 8
Walters Arena
Oil everywhere?
This
is less of a story and more about another change due to a failed
part.
End
of the season and back to Walters arena for the AJS 100 a two day
event. Day one we are doing quite well and enjoying the course laid
out.
Then
towards the end of the day about 1/2 - 2/3 the way around we can
smell burning oil, thinking that the engine has given up again we
push on (see one of the pic's in the gallery). Only when we get back
to the service area and start to investigate, there's an urgent shout
"stop the engine" there is oil pumping out all over the
floor and at this point we also realise that there is a trail of oil
across the service park.
The
problem;
To
be able to fit the oil cooler and remote oil filter, the front cover
of the engine has been modified to use existing oil ports to create
the supply and feeds. One of these uses an AN-10 To ORB-8 (3/4"
UNF) 90 Degree Ultraflow swivel seal hose fitting replacing the
standard oil filter screw. This oil fitting at the front of the
engine has either been hit by some stray debris or has come into
contact with the axel and has cracked arond the seat of the screw
thread?
Although
the tolerances and clearance to the front axel when the suspension is
fully compressed is very tight, we have been using this solution for
many years and events without any problems until now!
The
concern is that now having occurred once we cannot afford to let this
happen again, we where lucky to catch it this time. The obvious
solution would be to use a Banjo & Bbanjo bolt arrangement,
however after a lot of research I was unable to find any of these
that would not run the risk of constricting the oil flow and
the galleries within the bajo arrangement are quite small. A lot of
internet research and hunting for alternative solutions an
alternative hydraulic union 3/4" UNF 90 Degree to AN-10
union is found its made from steel so hopefully stronger to start
with but the main advantage is the way it fits means the effective
"height" is lower/shorter so the clearances are improved.
Being a relatively cheap steel solution a little modification to open
out the internal bore was carried out to improve the flow as mutch as
possible. This solution looks really good and works well in the
workshop environment with no apparent loss of oil pressures. the real
test will be the first event of 2023.
