Oil control for trackdays
 

hi everyone

my blob sti is a few steps away from going in for surgery and the guys doing the work have said I need to look at oil control, sumps, catch tanks if I'm going to do trackdays. Pardon the pun but it baffles me :wonder:

I'll list the spec of whats going on
Blobeye STI uk
SC42 Billet turbo
800cc injectors
GT Spec headers
3 inch decat exhaust (track friendly)
Mishimoto radiator and thermostat
Alcatek ECU
RCM Fuel pump
Pierburg 3 port boost solenoid
Retaining the standard airbox, intercooler, dump valve for the time being.

Im not number chasing, I have 2 friends with similar spec cars and they have guide me on the purchases etc but all of us are thinking about doing some trackdays next year so the oil/track prep things would be useful. Brakes, suspension have already been taken care of to a good fast road/trackday level.

Questions
Do we need to run a catch can? if so, where from and how many ports?
Is a baffle plate (think thats what theyre called) good enough for trackdays or are there other options?

The car has, and always will be just a road legal quick car that'll do 3 or 4 trackdays a year and a planned nurburgring trip next year and i'm an old fart that likes to over engineer things. At the same time I dont want to be throwing vast sums of money at something that may already be engineered well enough, but all 3 of us have been told to look into it.

If theres any blobeye sti owners on here running a track car or fast road car let me know what you did.

Thanks folks

Sounds like a good set up there, curious to see what sort of power you are able to achieve on the top mount : ).

Regarding oil management, I would suggest an uprated oil pump as well as a baffled plate at a minimum. Some people suggest that a plate is really not a good solution, but it has been fine for my car which is used with similar purpose and has similar spec to yours.

Another possible route would be the 'clubman' sump that AS Performance were doing, which is a modified OE sump - although not quite as comprehensive as the full on option, it saves you the large expenses of going with say a Group N sump and is probably better than just a plate.

Fuel surge can be an issue when the tank is below 1/2, engine cutting out coming out of a fast corner. Swirl pot is the answer or there may be a fuel pick-up mod available or don't allow the fuel to get low.
I run a catch-can but it never takes anything on trackdays, but does on launch starts on 1/4mile.
I have an RCM sump baffle plate but fitted it when my engine was being rebuilt as a precaution.
Tread carefully with oil coolers, the standard modine is very good and along with uprated water stat (if needed) will do a good job. If you then find you have high oil temps an oil cooler will help but a downside is low oil temps on the road.
Trev

Thanks for the replies lads

I've experienced the fuel cut thing but only usually around 1/4 tank. As I've said, we dont want to make the car and out and out track car, just be able to do the odd trackday without issues as its mainly for road use.

I did some reading about oil coolers and agree with you Trev, too much for a road car and have gone with a 68 degree mishimoto thermostat and radiator instead.

I will find it hard to justify £600 on an uprated sump vs £180 for a baffle plate, especially if others have similar cars/spec and have had no issues on trackdays.

Drake, the aim is around 380 but as I said I'm not number chasing. My 2 other mates have blobs with almost identical mods and making high 300's, 1 has the meth option on alcatek for a bit more.

Trev, if you could let me know your catch can plumbing etc it would be a help, 1/4 mile is also something all 3 of us are keen to do (sound like a bunch of hooligans haha). Who says you have to slow down when you get near 50 !

I'm 70 lol. I have 2 catch cans , crank breather, heads breathers which just simply interrupt the piping on the standard system and connect back into the turbo intake pipe. So the PCV action is maintained.
The crank breather catchcan takes quite a bit of oil on 1/4 mile but the one connected to heads never takes any oil or vapour. It's important whatever design you go for, it contains some sort of mesh baffling.

Erm..... that just went waaay over my head haha

Any chance you could sketch it, us engineers prefer diagrams :)

the crankcase breather pipe connects from down on the crankcase, it comes up directly next to the front lefthand side of the intercooler and connects into the large intake pipe for the turbo.
Likewise, the head breather pipes, that's the metal pipes attached to the rim of the intercooler are joined and rubber piped again to the turbo intake pipe.
My catchcans are two port, top port is connected to the outlet of crankcase breather (in), lower port is connected to the inlet of the turbo pipe (out). It's the same for the head breather.
By doing it this way I maintain the action of the Pressure Control Valve (PCV) which is part of the crankcase breather and on normal driving feeds crank vapours back into the manifold were they are burned off by the engine. On boost the PCV is pulled shut by the movement of air by the turbo so all vapours are pulled into the inlet pipe.
There are other choices of catch can and some feed back to the sump but this involves blanking off the PCV and I wouldn't think that's a good idea for a mainly road car.
hope this helps
Trev

I'm running pretty much the same spec sc42 with a front mount making 420 bhp on a blob sti.
I have got an rcm return to sump catch can and baffle plate. The car gets driven pretty hard on trackdays and sprints. The catch can is a must in my eyes for track use