water cooled sumps australia

[rustynails]

i just bought this water cooled sump for my holden and was speaking to the guy he said he was the last person in Australia to make them. He said a water cooled sump is ideal for barefooting or long ski days when you motor is working really hard. his name was Ray Hampson from Hampson Marine (NSW) 0408467712.

You should have seen the welding on it, it is all hand done using the oxy not the mig. he said the mig ruins the metal. I think he must be a perfectionist.

he also does conversions and all inboard repairs.

[malb]

Beware of too much oil cooling. On a car, the sump is partly exposed to the airflow from the cars motion, but frequently fairly well isolated by baffles or pans to control the degree of cooling. Apart from design asthetics, the primary reason for this is to allow the oil to operate at temperatures at least in the region of 100C. At this point, the moisture condensed from the air going through the engine can and being deposited in the sump will boil off, as will a large percentage of teh other contaminents that work their way into the oil. In a marinised engine, there is not the forced draft arround the sump, so the oil tends to run hotter.

If you have a highly efficient cooler, the evaporation doesn't happen and the contaminents rapidly accumulate in the sump. This can lead to acid etching and rusting of engine components. Your guy is correct about it being beneficial when the engine is working hard for long periods, when the risk is that the oil will get hot enough to reduce its lube and heat removal capabilities, but if the engine is not getting that sort of hammering, and you have a highly efficient cooler, the oil can run too cool. A system with a thermostatic bypass of the water cooler would be a good compromise. Another alternative is an inline cooler as part of a remote filter kit. Then the oil in the sump remains hot, but flowing oil is cooled between the pump and filter before being circulated back through the engine.