Looking into fitting my INA sump. Its baffled, has anti oil surge gates around the pickup, an extra 0.7L capacity and is a work of aluminium welding art. Only prob I could see is that it doesnt have a relief welded into the base for the dual oil temp/oil level sensor to fit to. I could get a relief welded into it but thought I'd look into if the oil level/temp sensor is really critical. So after some sage advice (as usual from Gavin) I had a look in VCDS, 17. Instruments, Group 3. That group has coolant temp (goes to engine ECU too but also to the cluster gauge), oil level (which triggers the oil level low alarm on the dash) and the oil temperature which comes from the dual sensor in the sump as well. By looking at this VCDS group I was able to confirm that when you unplug the sensor, the oil level reading in VCDS changes to not ok. This may or may not immediately bring up the alarm on the dash but it definitely is immediate in VCDS. The oil temperature also switched from 39 degrees C actual whilst sitting in the garage to an open circuit default of 155 degrees c. That's obviously the max it could ever read too as well.
So what it all means is that if you get a hole in your sump and all your oil runs out, VCDS will pick it up right away but the dash alarm isn't necessarily so quick. I've tested this 4 or 5 times and only about half the time is the oil level alarm immediate. This makes me think that having the oil level alarm in case of a split sump isn't 100% critical. To back it up there is an oil pressure switch on the oil filter assembly that will see an oil pressure drop quicker than the dash will often tell you that there is no oil in the sump, so I think I can do away with the level sensing. I've read that oil level sensing plays into VW's little program that tells you when you need a service too eg levels consistently low or temps hot and it will beep at you early telling you to go to the service centre. Don't know how definite that is but I wouldn't put it past them and there are groups in VCDS that look at average oil levels etc from this sensor.
To do away with level sensing I'd read that you only need to bridge wires 1 and 3 at the plug and VCDS and the dash will think that the level is ok. Well I found this not to be true. When you measure pins 1 and 3 on the sump sensor when the level is ok the sensor measures 5Mohm so I'll find a resister with that value and bridge the plug with that and see if the level sensing can be tricked.
Regarding oil temp, I'm pretty sure that the oil temperature isn't an engine ECU input eg in the way that coolant temp is and therefore wont affect things like cool running fuel trims etc. There are no VCDS blocks in the engine ECU that monitor oil temp at all. None are listed in the ross tech lists that are active on our engine. It only seems to input to the cluster probably because other cars with similar hardware eg audis, had oil temp sensor gauges on the dash. Ours doesn't though so it seems like its a null signal on the CAN that isn't used on any dash hardware/gauges that our car uses.
So in short, I'm going to fit the INA sump without the sensor. I'll hopefully trick the level sensing and rely on the pressure sensor to tell me if the sump gets ruptured (I'm sure I'd realise I'd had a big hit) and usual maintenance checks to tell me that the level is ok in normal running. For oil temp (since we have no dash display anyway) I wont miss anything, but what I'll most likely do is plumb an oil temp sensor into the oil filter mount so I can watch it realtime on an in cabin gauge. Who knows maybe 0.7L extra capacity will keep oil temps under control long enough in 5-10 lap sprints that I wont need to take the jump towards an oil cooler.
all sounds reasonable - the oil temp sensor can be tricked with a resistor too, you just want to heat the sensor up to 80° or so and measure the resistance...
on cold mornings, my dashboard 'dings' at me and flashes the outside temperature (4°) when I get a little bit of wheel slip.
yeah ambient air temp goes to the dash too - its good that you can read that in the stalk scroll through. Yeah it always freaks me out when that chime goes off making you think that somethings wrong.
Just spoke to Gav and he said that oil temp doesn't show up in any of the Nefmoto stuff for the engine ECU either so I feel fine a bout deleting that now as it seems its purely for the dash. Just have to find the right resister tomorow night at work and see if the level sensor can be fooled.
Sounds like a plan. Funnily enough I'm expecting a new sump to arrive any day myself - my current sump is baffled, has a nice windage tray etc, but hangs a bit lower than stock, enough that I've grounded it a few times. I've a new sump on the way that is shorter, and at the same time has a bigger capacity and better baffling.
To be honest I don't know. After taking a look inside one there didn't seem to be anything at all to stop oil just piling up against one side (being east-west) in a long corner away from the pick up. I'd looked at a few gated sumps that were available and read that the INA one was the crème de la crème and then coincidentally one came up for sale for next to nothing so I thought why not. I think the fact that it has the extra oil capacity was a nice bonus that helped me jump.
A nearly new Swift came to the motorkhana at Hay once, after the first test it rattled itself back into the parking area and straight on to a trailer. It was back the next year with a rebuilt engine and a baffled sump. Apparently it's a known fault with them... a little bit of aggressive cornering and they starve. Same with minis, we all run center oil pickups because they starve when turning right with the standard pickup.
When I do a bit more testing on the oil level sensor bridging and am confident to install mine, i'll put some pics up.
Did a bit more testing tonight and am now sold on the idea of an aftermarket oil pressure/temp gauge. I unplugged the OE oil pressure switch which is on the filter housing with the car running and while VCDS saw that oil pressure had dropped it neither brought up a code/error in VCDS or even activated a dash warning! However when I turned the engine off and went to restart it, only then did it flash the dash oil symbol and chime 3 times but then went away!! how ****e is that. So you could loose your oil and it'll only tell you when you next go to start your dead engine. Yep an in cabin gauge coming soon. I'm confident I can just bridge the stock oil pressure switch to GND and then fit an aftermarket sender in its spot.
The adjustable cam pulley arrived. Looks to be a pretty good bit of gear. Where the pin is in the first pic is normal TDC that correalates to the timing mark on the stock pulley. As you advance or retard cam timing, the pin will then locate into whichever set of the radial holes you have access to with each pin hole representing 1 degree. You can of course choose to move the timing infinitely and say position it between holes eg +1.5 degrees, the holes just give you definite step increments. It has 10.9 highish tensile bolts that need 10Nm torque. What I do like about this pulley (similar to the IE one too) is that the friction face between the two pulley surfaces is huge. I've seen pulleys where under each tensioning bolt there is only a small lug with a surface area no bigger than a pinkie print. They do it that way to keep weight down I guess and they are smarter than me but I just like the look of the huge clamping surfaces.
The keyway they use is actually a pressed in roll pin. Lots that I've seen had machined keyways cut into the billet centre, but Cat cams seem to use this method. The roll pin cant back outward as the mounting surface of the cam pulley bolt covers where the roll pin is positioned ie the roll pin wont be seen from the outside once the pulley is bolted in.
I'll weigh the pulley like for like against the OE cast steel one when I do the swap. Now all I need is the manual roller tensioner and the stud to hold it so that I can fit the pulley and do the conversion to manual tensioning all at once. The stupid manual roller tensioner is proving to be a bugger to source which is a bit frustrating. I have an OE hydraulic tensioner kit/pump etc all ready to go but I'd really rather do the conversion, so I'll keep leaking coolant everywhere until I eventually source the bits.
I already have the IE billet bracket/idle roller assembly, I just need the 16V manual belt tensioning roller and the stud. So if anyone has one on a shelf, or knows someone who knows something re that, please let me know. For a conversion that tonnes of people have done, it seems to be one of earths mysteries around where I am to find the bits needed.
Further to the INA sump fitment, I was able to confirm that the stock oil pressure switch that fits into the oil filter housing can be deleted. Its a normal on/off contact ie open circuit when there's no oil pressure and shorted to gnd when there is oil pressure. By running a wire from the single pin plug to the block I was able to confirm that the error code in VCDS, the oil pressure signal to the instruments blocks and the dash chime can all be negated if you bridge it to ground/neg.
So what it means is that I can piss off that switch and with it out of the way have the real estate to be able to screw in an aftermarket oil temp/pressure sender that will work far better than the factory system. Still now need to sort this oil level signal to the dash and then I'm good to fit up he new sump.
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