dirtygerman wrote:Yeah I haven't finished it yet. I still have to relocate the dip stick tube. When I cut the pan down I had no choice but to remove the return tube. I was worried about the return tube as it would be a pain in the ass to get it in the exact spot where it needs to be. So I looked at aftermarket ej oil pans and most of them just wall off a channel in the corner of the pan. So I will do that for sure.
As mum said if they jumped off a building would you ? Don't look at the crappy aftermarket oil pan designs, they are often built by people who have no real idea WTF an EJ does and doesn't need.
If you read the SAE Design papers on the EJ series engines you will see that oil surge and airation are both serious issue and the little men at subaru went to great lengths to sort it and stop killing engines. Your cross design will introduce a certain amount of baffling by default through the oil volume and its ability to move around. In relation to the oil return I suggest that you add one as the engine really needs to return the oil to the pan below the oil level so as not to airate the sump and cause issue.
I am not saying your engine will blow up without out it, but then again if you drive with out oil it won't blow up straight away yet no one does it.
When I build shortened sumps I go to great lengths to keep the factory return tube and top baffle in place as these two things alone can be the difference between a happy ej and an unhappy owner.
How do you go with engine mounts and getting the bolts back into the sump with the base overhang ? A handy trick I use to use before we added through tubes was to add a few studs to the ej block to allow easy alignment and get the sump in place. As they are sealed on with goo it is important to get it up and in place without getting goo in the sump or cross threading the bolts as you fight with alignment.
Anyway I hope that helps.
Once the swap is done I will get the car as low as I can.
