project64twenty

I'm not sure how common this is, but after splitting my engine case open yesterday, I was shocked at what I found inside. It looks as though, the oil pickup tube was installed incorrectly, resulting in it sitting higher inside the case than normal. What happened as a result, is the camshaft lobe that was directly above it, hit the oil pickup tube, and broke it off. I'm guessing my engine case was made on a Friday. Of course, this is just what I am estimating, I am not 100% sure. All I do know, is that if this is the case, then it had to have happened the first time the engine was cranked over, so it has been like this from day one. Funny thing is, I always had great oil pressure, so I had no clue that this is what had happened. Until now.

Here I have set the oil pickup tube to match where it 'broke' from the support tab. Already I see something wrong. The pickup tube is not level with the case, but that is as low as it gets. It looks like the mounting tab was welded to the pickup tube incorrectly, because the tab is sitting against the bottom of the case. With the cam in the case, I can clearly see how badly the cam was hitting the pickup tube.

And here's where the cam lobe pounded into the pickup tube. Holding the broken pickup tube in my hands gave me an idea. Looking how thin the pickup tube is (between the red lines), makes me wonder if this is a restriction in the system. By having the deep sump on the car, I don't really need the baffle (or whatever it is) on it, so in reality, I can do away with this whole part. Maybe it's not a restriction, but I plan on hitting 8K when this engine is done being 'upgraded', and I don't want to have the engine starve for oil.

So out comes the saw, and I cut the pipe off after the bend. I then welded a piece of 3/4" tubing from the hardware store to the end of the pickup tube.

Then I turned the pipe where I just cut it, and welded it to the pipe to give me a 90 degree bend. I measured my deep sump which came to 1 7/8" deep, from where it meets the case, to where it meets the sump plate. I gave myself a half inch of clearance for the pickup tube from the bottom. I've heard that it only needs to be about 10mm from the bottom, but I'll probably be pulling more oil than a stock VW will with the higher RPM's, so the extra room shouldn't hurt.