BMW V8 dry sump from billet

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Dean W:
This has been a marathon project, Ade. Great to see it fit up to the engine, and getting close to completion.

andyf:
Glad to see you are up and at it again, Ade. It's a monster project, and (unless there's anything you are keeping quiet about) it still seems to be going to plan. Speaking of which, was there actually a plan in the sense of drawings or are you making it up as you go along, using the old sump as a model?

Pneumonia? You have been in the wars, what with the pleurisy you had a week or two ago.

--- Quote ---it's been a bit nesh in the shop recently...

--- End quote ---

The shop is just a bit cold. You're nesh, but in the circs, that isn't surprising. I hope you are fully recovered.

Andy

AdeV:
Thanks for the kind comments, chaps :thumbup:

Andy, it turned out it wasn't pleurisy, it was actually pneumonia - I'd misdiagnosed myself (oops). I think I caught it on the plane over to Turkey, because it first showed up on Wednesday (I flew out on Tuesday) & steadily got worse. By the Sunday, I couldn't even lie in bed, it was just too painful, and walking any more than 100yds was all but impossible.

Still, fair play to the NHS, they got me back on my feet in, relatively speaking, no time. I didn't even have to pay for the prescription. Mind you, I wouldn't recommend an overnight in hospital to anyone - hotels are much more restful...

As for the project.... I've pretty much been winging it. There are some drawings I did early on, e.g. showing the positions of the various holes, drains & milled out sections; and a few crap-o-cads with various other measurements, but for the most part it's just been a case of measure, think, cut. Anyway... so far, so good; once I've finished with the back piece, the plan is to cut away the edges (where the mounting holes are), then cut fins into the bottom; I will probably also shape the bottom so it slopes towards the edges. The main thing is, not to cut into any of the inner workings, that would be a disaster...

EDIT: Ironically, the most difficulty I'm having now is remembering where the drawings actually are, so I can get some bolt centres right! :doh:

AdeV:
Blimey, MORE progress?! At this rate, there's a danger this project might actually get finished! :lol: (Nah, no chance - ed)

So, today I pretty much finished the work on the semi-circular piece that mounts up to the bell-housing & mostly seals it from dirt & gravel ingress - last seen somewhere in the middle of page 11 (here).

The first job was to cut some access channels, so that it's possible to reach the sump bolts with the part in place - essential on the original, desirable on my version as I plan to use lots of loctite to hold the main bolts in place...

Once again, the Gods of Tooling smiled upon me: I needed a long 18mm cutter, and the only one I have, although a roughing cutter, happens to be the longest endmill I've got - plenty of depth of cut:

The piece is clamped as hard as I dared onto the sump, and luckily didn't move at all during each of the four cuts. The end mill is 5" long (to the lip you see just below the collet). So, four cuts later:

I decided to put four mounting bolts in; 2 at the outer edges, and 1 between the centres of the holes; missing out the middle (because the clamp was in the way, and because I don't posess a set of drills long enough to do the job). So, after milling a flat, drilling 5mm, 7.5mm, 8.5mm to depth; then 10mm clearance (to just about the surface of the sump), then milled 16mm counterbore to take the cap head bolts, leaving about 8mm of aluminium for the cap heads to bite into, thus:

After tapping the four holes in the sump, we see the "finished" piece:

The only remaining job on that part is to drill & tap 2 more holes to accept bolts from the gearbox; I'll do that later once I've measured them up. Finally, I need to grab some cap-head bolts to make sure it all goes together nicely.

Next task: Milling around the edges, so I don't need insanely long bolts to bolt the sump to the engine. I've got to be a bit careful doing this, there's a couple of places where the head drains come dangerously close to the edge of the sump, and I need to make sure I don't mill into one of them... Day off :coffee: tomorrow, so progress (should!) resume on Monday :dremel:

Stilldrillin:
Solid, steady progress Ade! :clap: :clap:

Well done...... :thumbup:

David D

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