Most of you guys probably remember my oil pump dyno thread from earlier this year:

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=9685.0

You're probably saying to yourselves, "This guy must be an incredible nerd with too much time on his hands!  Why go to all of that trouble just to play with oil pump designs that have been around forever?"

FYI you're right about the nerd part    But there's I reason I did this.  Manufacturers are looking for every way possible to squeeze more economy out of our old dinosaur burners.  It turns out the oil pump is a pretty significant parasitic load on an engine.  Oil pumps are designed for the worst-case needs of your engine, like towing a heavy load up a mountain on a hot summer day.  When you're just turnpike cruisin', the engine is producing much less power and heat.  Oil flow can safely be cut by half or less.  This saves parasitic load on the engine and increases cruise fuel economy.

Standard gerotor oil pumps have a fixed oil flow for a given engine rpm, so people have had to go to vane-type pump designs to achieve variable flow independent of rpm.  These pumps work, but they're complex, delicate, and expensive.  They're also very sensitive to oil contamination.  Despite this, Ford went to a variable vane oil pump on the new Godzilla truck engine.  In the video below, Brian Wolfe explains how using a variable flow oil pump got them to their fuel economy goals without resorting to cylinder deactivation or direct injection.  Pretty cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJztLbsQ7Y4

So I got interested in variable flow pumps a couple of years ago.  The goals of my new design would be:

- Simple, durable, and cost effective
- Close as possible to existing "gerotor" pump technology
- Able to handle dirty oil as well as existing gerotor pumps
- Fail-safe design goes to maximum flow if the control fails
- Compact package, as close as possible to existing pump size
- Able to reduce flow (and pump drive power) at least 50%

Those are pretty lofty goals.  It took a couple of years of work, but I got there!  The fun part is that I used an FE oil pump (Melling M-57B) as the base for my first prototype.  The old dog can learn new tricks 

Here's a picture of the prototype pump:



I can't get into too many details on how it works (still too early in the patent process), but you can see a transmission control solenoid on the side of the pump.  The solenoid regulates a hydraulic circuit inside that moves mechanical parts to vary the rotor's flow volume.  I'll try to anticipate some thoughts people may have:

- I am not just dumping excess oil overboard, like auto transmission pumps do.  That's pretty wasteful.

- This is not a variable bypass design that sends extra oil from the output side back to the input.  Those controlled-bypass approaches have already been patented.  They don't seem to work very well, since Ford even bought one fifteen years ago and it has yet to appear in production.  I suspect oil aeration may be an issue based upon my earlier testing...

- Based upon patent searches, this seems to be a unique approach that can massively change the pump's output without adding too much size.

I've spent plenty of time on the test rig with this prototype.  Here are a couple of curves showing min (red) and max (green) flow and pressure.  I'll attach these charts so you can look at them in better detail.  The pump power drops proportionally as the flow and pressure drop:





Here's a shot of the pump mounted to the test rig adapter:



I also developed a little hand-held touchscreen controller to run the pump.  It can set the pressure anywhere within the colored area of those charts.  (There is a minimum and maximum built into the pump at any given speed.  You can't go below the red line or above the green line.  Anything in between is fair game!)  Here's what the controller looks like.  It plugs right into that control solenoid:



Here's a video showing the control working at 4,000 engine rpm.  The tachometer is showing pump rpm, which is 2,000.  When the video starts, the control is off and shows red.  I then touch the button and select different pressures.  You'll notice the rig speeds up a bit when I lower the pressure.  That's because the pump input power drops:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAlSgGHSaaw

Here's a video showing what happens when I disconnect the pump control.  You'll see that the pump instantly reverts to max flow.  At this point it's just like a standard M-57B pump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrg5fPuWveM

I tried to make this as short as possible, but it's two years of work.  There was a lot of frustration and plenty of scrap parts along the way.  I don't see a lot of interest from aftermarket guys or racers, since a couple of horsepower in savings isn't a lot.  Besides, when you're pushing it you'll want full oil flow anyway.  Hopefully this attracts the attention of a manufacturer.

I just wanted to share with you guys.  There are lots of smart cookies on here!  I know some of you guys are secretly as nerdy as I am    So, flame away!

Oops - Linked to an incorrect video.  Fixed

Felony - Is that you?  My kind of guy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LONT1oboJrs

Story here:

http://kfor.com/2016/08/06/historic-replica-airplane-the-bugatti-100p-crashes-near-burns-flat-pilot-and-designer-scotty-wilson-dies/

Project Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/TheBugatti100pProject/




RIP to a determined guy who just wanted to realize his dream!

Hi guys.  After a few years of slumber, my spin testing machine has broken cover.  Robert Pond called me a few months ago wondering if I'd be interested in spinning up one of his new SOHC heads and testing a beehive spring combo.  He's about an hour away from me in Riverside, CA.

Heck yeah!  I've been bumping into that poor thing in the back of my garage for quite some time now...  It needed a lot of attention, since the previous testing thrashes had taken their toll.  My tachometer was broken, and the oiling system was springing leaks all over.  I also built an improved mounting plate for the SOHC head.

We agreed to do the testing at his facility.  Last Saturday, I packed the machine up in the ole' Ranger and headed over.  Robert has a forklift, which made the unloading easy:



Here's Robert's head getting set up for the test.  I must say it is a VERY nice quality casting.  All of the machining is accurate and all of my parts bolted right up as they should:



Here we are nearly set up for the first run:



We first ran the machine at idle speed to make sure all systems were operating normally.  This caught a loose bolt on the cam snout pulley, which would have gotten ugly at 8,000 rpm.  Once tightened up, I shot this little clip:

Dang it- Embed not working from Photobucket.  Here's the link:

http://s905.photobucket.com/user/ottodyn/media/Robert%20Pond%20Spin%20Test/TestMachineIdling_zps747a38bf.mp4.html

Here's a picture of the spring and retainer.  Robert opted for a PAC 1555 beehive spring. 

- Seat load:  Approximately 180 lb
- Load at full lift:  Approximately 425 lb

- Approximate cam lift:  0.720 inch
- T&D Steel Adjustable SOHC Rocker



This is impressively light!  He also set the spring up extremely tight.  Basically if set the lash less than 0.020", you risk binding the spring ;-)

After the basic systems check, we ran up to progressively higher speeds.  Here's a video clip at the 8,000 rpm test goal speed.  I aplogize in advance for the video quality.  I'm a bit off my game with this thing and I think i got some oil on the lens.  Robert's big beefy cam caps also obstruct the view from my machine's standard view port.  Will have to rework that...

Here's the link again.  Sorry embed isn't working:

http://s905.photobucket.com/user/ottodyn/media/Robert%20Pond%20Spin%20Test/8000RPMSummaryVideo_zps03dae0e0.mp4.html

The beehive spring works very well at this speed.  Valve motion is well controlled and the tight setup damps coil oscillation quite nicely.  There is some spring rotation, likely due to the valve stem wiggling/ orbiting in the guide.  That's not a big deal since these speeds will only be seen for short periods.

The smoke coming from the valve stem / adjuster interface is caused by the adjuster scrubbing across the valve stem tip.  It's unavoidable with this valvetrain geometry and an elephant foot adjuster.  Robert and I are not concerned about this because, again, the engine will rarely venture into this rpm territory.  It's only above 7,000 rpm that we start seeing significant heating from this effect.

By the way, here's the result of an earlier test where I ran a head for an extended period (like five minutes continuous) at 8,000 rpm:



The test was done with the same T&D steel adjustable rocker that Robert is using.  Notice the discoloration in the picture below.  The pivot ball underneath was badly chewed up from heating and lack of oil:




On Robert's test, we didn't come close to hurting anything.  We were only at 8,000 rpm for a few seconds.


Here's one of Robert's heads in a box.  Cammer goodness!



More boxes full of cammer goodness!



I spent a great day with Robert.  He is a super nice guy and I wouldn't hesitate to do business with him!

Now I'm getting fired up to do some more testing.  Jay may have a couple of devious plans for the near future.  Stay tuned...

- Bill

Hi guys -

Lately I've been struggling with an issue on my 1997 4.0L Ranger.  It's been misfiring at idle (hot only) and of course throwing codes 301 and 306.  FYI it has 155K easy miles on it.  I've never towed anything and most of the miles have been at highway speeds.  The truck is in such good shape that it's worth keeping.

The collective wisdom on the internet all points to intake manifold leaks.  I've torn the upper and lower intake down twice to be sure it wasn't an issue.  I even built a smoke machine to try and pinpoint a leak!  Nada.  The fuel trims were a bit lean, so I replaced the HEGO sensors and even rebuilt the EGR system.

Finally I had enough and pulled the heads off.  Here's what I found:



Can you believe it??  This is the worst one - Cylinder #6, but some others were nearly as bad.

You'd think I was pulling fifth wheel trailers up inclines for 155K miles 

Clearly the Krauts in Cologne were not minding the induction hardening machine the day that engine went through.  Just goes to show the "obvious" is not always the answer.

I've just received a new set of heads - $685.00 delivered ready to bolt on.  For that money plus some gaskets it's worth keeping the old girl around a while longer.