Took the car out on a longer drive to see how the dry sump performed. Everything was fine, with neither coolant nor oil getting above 75 degrees C, though the car wasn’t being pushed and it was a fairly cold day. In fact, I got to the base of Palomar mountain but between being at the end of a long line of slow cars and it getting colder, I turned back.
When at idle, I can clearly hear the noise, apparently caused by the scavenge pumps doing their job. As said before, let any air into the engine and the noise vanishes. Next week I’ll ask the pump manufacturer what the noise might be and am hoping they’ll say it’s normal. The pump certainly seems to be doing its job – during several full throttle romps there was no blue smoke visible; apparently engine oil is no longer getting pushed through the turbo bearing into the intake tract by crankcase pressure.
Once home it was on to the next project: the air filter box. It was disassembled to start on one with more space for thicker filter elements, in addition to a 4″ outlet, and bell (the new turbo has a 4″ inlet while the old one had a 3″).
Haven’t decided on whether to do the January 10 track day at Auto Club speedway… guess I need to make up my mind.
In other news, the Arial Atom I saw around town came to a sad end. A news article reported that the 21-yr old driver lost it on a turn and spun it backwards into an oncoming SUV. No one was killed but both occupants of the Atom were evacuated by helicoptor. No word on whether they hit water, oil, or just over cooked it. I’ve driven that same S-shaped section of road about 1000 times and it’s all too easy to break the back end loose and start a “tank slapper” – but that’s speculation.