I know. I know. I’ve missed two weeks’ worth of blog posts, but let’s be honest, don’t we have bigger things to worry about now with all the crazy virus stuff going on. As for me, I was just starting to settle into my new position at work and figure out how I would be able to still create content weekly, when BAM! The COVID-19 hit, and it hit hard. I work in a grocery store and because of all the hysterically panicked sheep AKA (Americans) that ransacked everything in every grocery store across the country stocking up and hoarding unbelievable quantities of useless supplies. I’ve been left picking up the pieces that all the selfish breeders have so carelessly left a mess. It’s crazy to watch just how blindly people will follow anything that is said on social media, by influencers, or news companies trying to compete for views, which all translate into money. Because isn’t that what it is all about, Money right! Sorry for the rant, but it’s a virus people. Influenza has KILLED more people since October 1st, 2019 – March 14th, 2020 (estimated by the CDC 23,000-59,000) than the amount of people that are estimated to HAVE COVID-19 (87,000 in America) Let me simplify that for you.
- From October 2019 – March 14th 2020 between 23,000-59,000 have reportedly DIED from the common flu.
- As of Thursday March 26th ONLY 1300 HAVE DIED FROM COVID-19.
- The amount of people Diagnosed with influenza from October 2019- March 14th 2020 is 38,000,000- 59,000,000
- The amount of people that have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Thursday march 26th is 85,000.
As of 2018 there was 327.2 MILLION people living in America (surely there is more now). That means that only .03% of Americans have it, and .00039731051% of Americans have died from it. Yes it is a disease that is spreading rapidly, but not as fast as the fear, and panic that is being generated by the media, miss informed masses that spread the panic by lying, embellishing, trying to sound like you know what they’re talking about, or just feeling important momentarily while people listen to the non-facts you have about something you don’t know a damn thing about. All that this pandemic has taught us is that we are dirty and need to be more conscious of our hygiene. In no way am I an expert, but I am a realist and extremely interested in factual numbers. Go to the CDC’s website and look for yourself if you don’t believe me. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be taking extra precautions, but you all don’t need cases of toilet paper and water. Take a shower if you’ve got shit in your ass, if you don’t have running water then you’ve got bigger problems than shit stains in your underwear.
I digress…
Now on to why you’re all here. I’m finally starting the B16 build for my four door EK track car. (unfortunately social distancing has canceled every HPDE “track event” we all had planned, and there seems to be no end in sight) The positive to this is I will be able to have enough time to get my B16 all swapped into my 4 door, and not have to worry about sparing any expense on it since I won’t need it for entry fees, or tires any time soon.
If you follow me on Instagram (@Functiontheory) you’ll notice recently I have just done quite a bit of work to the B16 and its almost ready to swap in, but in efforts to keep the content rolling out weekly i’m going to keep that content for next week. This week I will just be talking about welding in the oil pan baffle. Sure, its a very basic/easy thing to do but as always I took too many pictures and didn’t want to make one GIANT post. Alternatively I will be splitting it up across a few weeks.
Oil starvation is one of the quickest ways to kill your engine. Let’s face it, engine swaps aren’t cheap and there is no better way to protect your investment (other than a dry sump setup) than baffling your oil pan. This can be done numerous ways.
- You can purchase an aftermarket oil pan that has a baffle welded into it or built into it. The problem with those is they are prone to leaking.
- You can purchase an OEM oil pan that a Japanese tuner has welded their own baffle in. These don’t have any leaking issues since it’s an OEM pan, but they are astronomically priced “because JDM”
- Lastly you can just buy your own baffle kit and WIY (weld it yourself). As far as I know, for a B series engine Password JDM are the only company that makes a WIY kit. They have been making these for years, and honestly its such a simple design it’s easy to see what it’s less than 50 bucks.
All B series oil pans are steel, this means that you can weld it in with just a basic MIG welder. Since there is not actually any structural integrity you don’t even really need to be good at welding. You’re essentially just “gluing” in some plates to stop the oil from sloshing around.
I have chosen to go the cheaper route opting for the Password JDM WIY kit. In this rare case the cheaper option isn’t actually sacrificing any performance. In fact, the PWJDM WIY kit is the go-to for most track enthusiasts out there.
You will need to do a really good job cleaning out the oil pan. I use quite a bit of brake cleaner and some rags to clean the major residual oil film left in it. Then I take some simple green and a nylon brush (this is the perfect opportunity to completely clean both the inside and outside of the pan) Use water to wash it all out. Don’t worry you can completely dry the water out and there isn’t any passages or areas for it to get stuck in. Just make sure you completely dry it before you start to weld.
We start by unbolting the oil pan off the engine.
The header must be off in order to remove the oil pan, but that’s the only thing needed to be removed. (if you’re doing this while the motor is in the car) If you’re doing this while the engine is in the car, you will need to completely drain the oil before removing the pan… Well either way all the oil must be drained, but I’m assuming if you have it on a stand the oil has already been drained.
There is a combination of 10mm nuts and bolts holding the pan on.
If your engine is upside down on a stand, I would recommend wrapping a trash bag around it to prevent any dirt or foreign objects from falling in. If you’re doing it while the engine is in the car, just try and be quick. Do it in a garage out of the wind and other elements. Remember too, that even though you have drained the oil out of the pan, oil will continue to drip on the floor. Make sure you have some cardboard, or towels laid down, so you don’t stain your garage floor.
Above is what the oil pan looks like all removed. As you can see from the factory there is slight baffling, but that’s not good enough for extreme track conditions.
The PWJDM kit contains only three pieces and will literally just sit in the pan. It will also only fit one way, notice how the diagonal slit lines up in with the relief made in the oil pan where the oil pick up tube fits.
I noticed that one of the side plates didn’t fit flush with the wall of the oil pan (seen in picture below) You can see the small vertical piece on the left sits flush with the wall of the pan, and the other piece on the right side has a small gap. Most would be okay with this and just weld it that way, but my OCD wouldn’t allow for it.
I simply took a cut off wheel, made a small slit along the bend, and then just bent the tab a little to better fit the contours of the oil pan. first two pictures below are what it looks like unmodified.
Next two pictures you can see how I cut a small slit and slightly bent the small tab. Make sure to use a file to remove any metal that is left after cutting, you don’t want any of that getting into your engine.
Below you can see how it now fits flush against the wall of the pan.
Now that you have checked that everything fits as it should. Take a paint pen, or some sort of marker to mark the areas you will need to take the paint off. You must take the paint off the pan for the welding process to properly work. Again, remember that you’re only “gluing” it in, you don’t need to run a bead all around the whole plate. You will only need to weld the areas I have marked in yellow.
Now take a wire wheel. You can use one on a drill if you don’t have air tools. It’s such a tight area, that it is too hard to get a flappy wheel in there. You really want to make sure you’ve gotten ALL the paint off.
Not only do I wire wheel the pan to remove all the paint, but I also do it to the baffle plates where I’m going to weld (the paint pen should mark the plates too). The cleaner the area you’re going to weld, the easier it will be to have good welds. Below you can see where I used the wire wheel to clean the plates. Also use brake cleaner to clean what you have just wire wheeled on both the pan and the plates.
Pay no attention to the terrible welds I did, I’m disappointed in myself and I actually almost just ordered a new pan to do it all over again. The worst one was the first weld I did, and the temp of the welder was set too high (I forgot to check) and it melted through the OEM baffle (not the actual pan), so I had some “filling” to do that only made it look worse.
Make sure you use water (preferably a hose) to completely flush out any slag, metal dust, or any other debris that might still be in the oil pan. After the flushing with water I spray a can or so of brake cleaner all over, under the baffle, and all sorts of different directions to just be sure you don’t have anything left in the pan that would cause catastrophic failure of an engine. Feel around with your fingers under the baffle too (especially where you welded), and slide your fingers all along the bottom of the pan to feel if there is any debris left. It’s imperative that you don’t leave anything in the pan. A hose, brake cleaner, and air compressor should be used in excess. IT CAN’T BE TOO CLEAN.
There is no need to paint it if you’re going to be putting it back on and throwing oil in it within a week or so. However, if it’s going to be a while until it gets coated with oil you should paint it, or spritz some oil on it so surface rust wont develop. You don’t want to have rust particles flowing around in your oil.
That’s all there is to it. I highly recommend that anyone do this to their car, and as you can see with a B series it’s pretty easy. Save your money and don’t buy any of the JDM hype pans, or aftermarket pans. If your car is going to have 200 WHP or less, the PWJDM WIY kit will be all you need. Now unfortunately if you have a K series most of them have aluminum pans (some are steel) and you’ll need a TIG welder to weld on aluminum. There are also a few other options for K series but ill spare you the details (this is a post about building my B series) However In my K Series I opted for a spoon baffled pan. Recently though, I have just learned of another company based out of Canada that is making some pretty cool K series baffled oil pans. Their name is “Unit 2 Fabrication Inc.”
Yes, most of my readers might already know about oil pan baffles and to some of you this might not seem remarkably interesting. The fact of the matter is that I want everyone to understand how easy it can actually be to do this, and that it’s not necessary for you to purchase an expensive alternative option.
Thanks for reading, and as always, I hope I was able to inspire/motivate you to get out and work on your car. Thanks for also bearing with me during this transition time at my new position, and hopefully the COVID-19 won’t make things any more difficult. No matter what though, I will always be here, always be into cars, always be tracking my cars, and will always be in the garage working on one of my cars or someone else’s. It’s not just a hobby for me it’s a way of life. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Email me at Billy@functiontheory.com, DM me on Instagram @Functiontheory, or just comment on this post below.
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