Hello all,
I just purchased a dry sump kit from ARE (Armstrong Race Engineering) for my F20C motor that's going into my Lotus 7. I am having some issues regarding the space left at the bellhousing, as well as mounting and plumbing the pump.

Are there any owners of this kit on this forum that can lend a hand with pictures?

Thanks in advance,
-Zach

 

i'd think you'll probably have a better chance of getting answers from ARE, or from other locost/7 forums seeing how in your particular case, this is quite application specific.

 

Not really. It's the same kit that goes on a stock S2000 and presents the same problems. Mainly, the fact that the oil pan no longer has the provisions to mount up the bellhousing with those bottom two bolts, leaving the clutch/pressure plate etc open to the elements.

 

Can you post a few pictures of the issue. Also, can you post the cost of this kit? I have looked at it, but I just don't have the time to call them

 

I'm at work until 2pm CST. I've got the oil pan mounted up right now. Once i get back home I will post pictures of the oil pan on the block and the issue of the bellhousing.

I was under the assumption that this dry sump kit would allow me to mount the motor much lower, but it seems that is not the case. The limiting factor is the bellhousing now, unless i can machine the living balls off of it.

The kit cost me $2400. The only thing I had them exclude was the external oil lines, as I dont know what lengths i need since this is not going into an S2K.

 

Thanks, I would also like to see how/where the pump mounts and the belt/pulley path.

I do agree that now the bell housing is a limiting factor.

 

They supplied some universal mounting bracket, which is essentially a 6x6x2" piece of aluminum with a LOT of holes drilled into it. You pick the ones you want to use, tap them out, and mount the pump....I think thats about as sh*tty as you can possibly get, so I will be making my own bracket. It is driven from a pulley that is mounted right in front of the crank pulley. Again though, everything is universal and you have to machine it to fit. That is probably the biggest complaint i have about this "kit" so far: It's far from S2000 specific and a lot of machining and guess work has to be done by me. I don't really see why i paid extra to get the parts from ARE when i could have just got them from Moroso. We'll see how easy it is to mount up the pump and pulleys.


The pan can be made with right or left side exits, i opted for the left side and plan on mounting the pump where the a/c used to be. The other problem i see is the pickup is on the passenger side of the motor...the one that is tilted down to begin with. So while the majority of the pan is very shallow, it doesn't give a whole lot of benefit as far as mounting the motor lower.

My plan so far for the bellhousing is to just machine the living hell out of it and weld on a plate to make it flat on the bottom. The goal is to get it machined as close to the flywheel as i possibly can because this motor has to be lowered by a good 3" to get it to clear a standard Lotus 7 hood.

 

Here is the picture of the problem I'm having:



As you can see, there are no provisions on the dry sump pan to bolt up the bottom two bolts on the bellhousing. Also, the flywheel sits LOWER than the dry sump pan, so i dont think i can machine anything off of the bellhousing to help me with the clearance.


Any ideas? I'm quite frustrated at the moment.

 

I was lead to believe that dry sumping the motor would let me mount it a good 3" lower in the chassis. This is obviously not the case as the limiting factor is the bellhousing size. I don't see how its possible to get a flywheel that is 6" smaller in diameter to allow 3" to be machined off of the bellhousing.

Any ideas?

 

chris barry has done a Lotus 7/clubman with a custom Dry sump.

http://www.prbaustralia.com.au/