You should see your needles shimmy or it will cause the stuck needle to fall down. If it works, great! If not, you will most likely need a new cluster, so head over to the dealer.
Oil control on track is a weakness of a stock Toyota-powered Lotus. Our baffled oil pan, the gPAN has been a reliable solution that has kept many, many cars safe with good oil control when subjected to 1+g loads. We initiated a serious dry sump effort to develop the next level in oil control but continued to look at the gPAN to see if slight improvements could be made. Both our dry & wet sump solutions are discussed in this post.
A wet sump solution like the gPAN is truly the best option for most owners as it remains street friendly. I cut my engineering teeth at Pontiac Fiero where continuous improvement was part of our daily mission and expectations. In the 90s, I worked with the Japanese OEMs, while working at 3M Automotive, and saw it applied at all areas of their business. From the Japanese I learned that small improvements, done continuously, can have a big impact over time. 
The new gPAN2 is an example of a product that we have been able to improve through small design changes. Our latest improvements are horizontal ledges in the side of the pan. The chart above shows oil pressure data measured from two of our Elises(Nirvana & Blue Car). They were equipped with basically the same modifications: Nitron 46mm Triples, Hoosier A6s, SJ Racing wheels, RACEunderAero, titanQR and KATANA265. The Blue Car had our new ULTRAliteLINES vs. stock oil cooler lines in Nirvana, which may account for the slightly higher average oil pressure. The data is from the Lotus Cup events at Laguna Seca in 2010 & 2011, with yours truly doing the driving. We took laps that were close in time and also compared the g loads (over 1g) to insure we were loading the cars equally. The data is shifted a bit as our Start/Stop point were a bit different for each car so the peaks and valleys don't correspond perfectly.
The variation between the two pans is the most striking difference. Both gPANs do a good job with keeping the oil pressure in an acceptable range - the gPAN2 simply controls the variation better. Will this make any difference to wear and tear on the engine? Hard to say as we don't have the ability to test longevity. The engineer in me says that it must be better as it varies less. Though there would be added cost of material and labor for welding the ledges, I felt it would be an improvement worth incorporating. It was also a big enough improvement that a new name was in order. So we put on our creative hats and came up with... gPAN2...8^) |
Two weeks ago, we received a commission to build a track-only Elise by a client in NJ. Jerry requested that we build him a fast, fun and reliable car. He gave us a good budget but a tight timeline, so we went to work without delay. Luckily we knew of a vendor who stocked Tasty Lotus Bits....
We were at the track again last week for more testing. We pulled our engine and had Bruce Nogrady install our new oil pump gear, the 2ZZopg. We went to Willow Springs to test after confirming that the gear was running fine on the street. We also needed to test another brake pad compound and an improvement to an existing product. My good friend and fast LCS racer, Jack, met us at the track and was our official test driver. Jack has many, many laps on this track and could be trusted to put the car under high loads to confirm the performance of parts we are developing.
I received an email last week from a supplier (and friendly competitor) expressing concern about the clamps that we were using in our new ULTRAliteLINES. His concern was based on the fact that Gates, the manufacturer of the clamps, recommends them 'for vehicle coolant hose only'. I very much appreciated the feedback from him as it made me realize that others would also raise this concern - even though we are using it with hose engineered for coolant, oil and other fluids. So this blog entry serves to show our approach to insuring the performance of our product.
30minutes and check for leaks
We used our AiM data system to record key parameters like oil temp and pressure. We also reviewed the lateral acceleration numbers to see how the pressures were holding up with our gPAN. The car showed oil temps of approx 200degF which is well under the 300deg F used in the Pressure Proof testing. The actual oil pressures we logged ranged from the high 40s psi to the low 60s psi. This was a third to half of what was used in the lab testing and far, far below the Burst test results of 344, 452, 565 psi. Ryan's OE experience suggested that a peak pressure of 100psi would be the extreme level experienced by our lines.
The next round of Lotus Cup took place at Laguna Seca. We brought our Elise out for additional testing:
We brought Blue to CA Speedway to further test our various new products. We recruited a couple of fast drivers, Brent Bauman and Scott Nogrady, to really put her to the test. The quickest lap time that we recorded was a 1min47.9s lap at the hands of Brent. This time was one of the best during the Lotus Cup race this past weekend. Our goal was to push the various parts hard and see how they would perform.
Mario, Ryan and I spent Friday at Willow Springs raceway conducting our initial shakedown testing of The Blue Car. We had installed several new serious bits on her. The key items we wanted to test were the Jubu Dogbox transmission, our new Oil Cooler lines, FuelSafe Fuelcell, proRAD with relocated Fans, Silicone hoses, Brake caliper relocation and an extensive AiM data system. Performance, Safety and Reliability are our key goals with this car. We believe a car that runs properly and is not broken is a car that delivers the most smiles.
Four years ago I called one of the best manufacturers of dry sump pumps and pans - Dailey Engineering to develop a solution for us. Bill Dailey is a world recognized engineer in this field and (lucky for us) is located right here in town. Bill and I scrutinized our Exige and quickly concluded that it would be very difficult to incorporate a dry sump into a street friendly Lotus because of the oil tank requirements. At the time, not enough Lotus were race-only, so we decided to put the project on hold. Last year we decided to reapproach the project with the intent of focusing on a race only system. Nitron had begun working on a solution that we considered, but we then abandoned it because of certain constraints. Late last year, I called Bill Dailey again for his help and recruited a much smarter engineer than I (Ryan from Secant ) to develop our kit. Ryan's powertrain expertise and contacts in the OE world proved to be invaluable for this effort. 
Our Blue Elise came to us a few weeks ago in perfect running order. This car is special because it is actually one of the first US-spec Toyota-powered examples ever made. The build date was in 2003 and was classified as an engineering prototype car. This was one of the cars Lotus brought to the LA Auto Show for North American debut of the Elise.
To have the car ready for our May, 6th track day, we have a laundry list of various safety and performance bits that need to be installed. Here's some of what "Phase 1" includes:
