E30 M20 oil sump modification/upgrade

I'm looking at buying a '90 325is with 213k that has largely been a track car for the past four years. It's been well maintained, but I do intend to keep tracking it, and I've heard whispers that the stock M20 setup has an issue with dropping pressure in fast corners. I've budgeted for engine and trans mounts anyways, so I'm thinking about dropping the pan and adding some sort of windage tray or crank scraper "while I'm in there."

Ireland sells a little square baffle that surrounds the pump pickup at the bottom of the pan, for like $40. Reviews seem to indicate that it works well enough. They also sell a $50 steel crank scraper, while another company sells a $120 steel one and $210 Teflon one. Supposedly all of them are kind of a PITA to fit and install, but those who go through the trouble also say it works pretty well. Company that makes them claims 3.5% horsepower gain from lighter rotating assy...so who knows. The little baffle seems like a no-brainer but I'm puzzled by the crank scraper.

Does anyone have experience beefing up the M20 oil system? Am I wasting my time with this? Should I replace the pump while I'm in there?

I'd recommend just running it and replacing with a m or s 50/52 if it dies....granted, $40 sounds reasonable to take the chance on though. That said, my knowledge is somewhat limited on M20's.....

So out of the 100 or so E30 owners on this board, nobody has been through this!?

It's never been an issue for me, and I've run Road Atlanta in my car. If you're really scared, just overfill the oil a little bit.

That said, Ireland's products are pretty much universally awesome. You can't go wrong with their stuff.

On our Lemons car at work, we kept grenading motors after 6-8 hours, until we welded a piece of aluminum shaped roughly like the IE baffle into the pan. Motor didn't blow up next race.

Take that little anecdote how you will, but it's worked for us.

Edit: 1989 E30.

Everything short of a GT3 has oil issues if you make enough speed and grip at the same time. Baffles are your friend. On the m20 (and all bmw slant motors) you need to stop it from crawling up the right side of the block. IE's piece looks like it works if you aren't comfortable making one out of $3 worth of .040 aluminum.

We have the baffle and crank scraper on our '89 325i ChumpCar. Neither one was too much work to fit. Your time is in removing and replacing the oil pan. Over 50 hrs of race time on the original ~200k mile motor. We have never dropped oil pressure at Brainerd, IA Speedway oval, or Road America, and the motor is still going strong. Why take a chance, you have to take the oil pan off to put either in, so might as well get both. Since we have both I can't say which is most effective, or if we could get by with only one, but again, we didn't want to find out the hard way that we should have put both in to start.

How hard is it to fit the IE crank scraper?

If I was going to have the engine out, I'd be thinking very hard about an M52 swap.

I can see that as getting carried away though. It's not crazy, but it's not trivial.

I will, however, implore you to put a Z3 steering rack in there if you're going to have the engine out of the way. Though I like E30s, someone in Munich got a deal on a shipment of school bus steering racks...

In reply to ransom:

The E30 rack is perfect for what the car was originally designed for - cruising down the Autobahn at triple digits.

Any M20 scraper is going to be a grind fit scenario, I've done the IE (cheap) and the Ishihara-Johnson (more costly) ones and they all needed to be massaged to fit (something about core shift with the castings). All you need is a sharpie, die grinder and some wire the clearance you need, the rest is test fit, mark, grind, and repeat until you're where you need to be. I do like the I-J scraper as they add some trap doors and some other pieces, where the IE part is much more basic, so you are getting more engineering for the extra you spend

I-J piece http://crank-scrapers.com/bmw_m20.html

IE piece http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/E30-engine/m20optray.html

My concern is this regarding fitting: I am a novice at motor internals. I have the pan off to put on a new pan, so the mod makes sense, but with the motor on a stand, how easily will I be able to turn it to ensure clearance at all points in the rotation?

Thanks!

phenryiv1 wrote: My concern is this regarding fitting: I am a novice at motor internals. I have the pan off to put on a new pan, so the mod makes sense, but with the motor on a stand, how easily will I be able to turn it to ensure clearance at all points in the rotation? Thanks!

Wait a minute, you have the motor on a stand and you're worried about turning it over to check for clearance?

I was going to do it with the motor in the car...

I have a IE crank scraper I've never installed. I'd be willing to part with it.

In reply to ddavidv:

How much, and how quickly could you ship it out?

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SlickDizzy wrote:

phenryiv1 wrote: My concern is this regarding fitting: I am a novice at motor internals. I have the pan off to put on a new pan, so the mod makes sense, but with the motor on a stand, how easily will I be able to turn it to ensure clearance at all points in the rotation? Thanks!

Wait a minute, you have the motor on a stand and you're worried about turning it over to check for clearance?

Like I said- total novice. I am swapping out a b27 (already out), moving the pan from the b27 to an otherwise-assembled b25 (working on that) and installing the b25.

The b25 is ccomplete- can I turn the rotating assembly by hand without damage to facilitate the crank scraper clearance during install?

The

phenryiv1 wrote: Like I said- total novice. I am swapping out a b27 (already out), moving the pan from the b27 to an otherwise-assembled b25 (working on that) and installing the b25. The b25 is ccomplete- can I turn the rotating assembly by hand without damage to facilitate the crank scraper clearance during install?

Yes. Pull the plugs first to make turning easier, but a 22mm wrench should be all you need.