4A oil control - who's done what?

Its a good point to raise. I spun my first bearing on a high speed stage half way through a rally. Tried to limp it back to the service park. I ended up kicking a rod out in a spectacular fire ball going past Kendall golf course. Not how you want to be turning heads.
 
You raised a red flag to me which was that you have a remote filter housing and cooler. If you are running a 13 row cooler with a couple of metres of 10AN, it might consume around the 300ml mark, or more. 
 
Consider the orientation of the 4a in an MR2. The sump collection bit is on the driver side. Sweeping right hand corners take the oil away from the pick-up.
 
We know a lot of oil tends to stay high in the heads in 4a's when they're singing. If you don't compensate for your cooling system, and your pushing in a third/4th gear right hand sweeper, imagine what's left in your sump of your 3.5 odd litres.
 
The cheap solution is to chuck in more oil. Its only too much oil if your crank is wading through it, or its gushing out the PCV valve (which you should have plumbed into a catch can for track days). The mark I run at is well above the factory line.
 
You can do a pump upgrade but it wont help you if your pick-up is sucking air. I recommend an oil pressure gauge with an inbuilt alarm. Roadrunner 4x4 does a good one. Keep an ear out in the right handers.
 
If ever I blow a motor, I've been advised to chuck out the oil cooler and replace it. It can end up with fine particles in it that can find their way into you new motor. It has to be a false economy to re-use a contaminated oil cooler.
 
I run Penrite 15w-50 high performance mineral. It has the high zinc content but stays pretty clean as well. I tried the Brad Penn but it seemed to me it would need more regular changing with flushing. Prob good for quarter mile motors and high boost.
 
If you're still suffering oil starvation after that, start playing with sumps, but try and identify when the starvation is occurring. Maybe you can data log your oil pressure and get Mark Larkim about it. No point di(*ing around with sumps if you have a slightly bent crank or poor bearing clearances causing dramas.
 
Hope it helps. Don't short-cut on that rebuild. Do it right
 
 
 

Great info rallyadub!

Awesome thorough response rallyadub. I run an 11 row cooler, remote mount filter (due to turbo fitment) and i run my car overfull by about 5-700ml. I have oil temp and pressure sensors which are logged by the motec. By the logging, i got a gulp of air, and looking at the values from the ecus internal g sensors, it was while i was bouncing around breaking traction, before going through a 3rd gear right hander.

I cant add any more oil, as it causes issues with the turbo oil seals. As for oil it lives on 10w40 300v in winter, and 15w50 300v in the summer months. Funny you should mention cranks, i broke one in my old motor. Crank was checked, block had main caps line bored and i personally assembled the motor and bearing clearances we checked with a micrometer and plastigauge.

Theorist: i believe these arent bad, i believe zerogk ran them in his sump with success. I just have issue with twos r us due to prior issues. If they were made by t3, i would have them on order already. Thats mega unlucky with your car, i broke a crank and destroyed bearings and in the situation, was unable to switch off car for over a minute. Still have the block, but it is unusable.

Aaron, i know i know, but i would rather execute less invasive options first. I might play around with a spare sump while i have time off over chrissie/new years.

Thanks for the responses guys, its an issue that i never see discussed on here, some awesome input.

I'm keen to hear what you guys come up with. I just grenaded my motor in spectacular fashion on a long left hander, however my oil level was just under the dipstick, so operator error.
 
I have the sump out of the spare engine and there is too much clearance around the factory baffle plate for my liking. A tighter fitting baffle plate that can be riveted to the top of the factory one would be the go. Also, the riveted baffle plate could incorporate a folded up section (on the #4 cyl side) with a trap door - visualise the top half of the twosrus design combined with post #3 of Rallyadub's link.
 
I'm a couple month's away from piecing the new engine together and dealing with the issue, so will keep an eye on this thread in case there is a better idea out there.

You will find the oil flow is actually much lower then the pumps flow potential as the pressure bypass valve will dump most of it back to the sump when your up over the middle of the rev range. A lot of the oil galleries and ports are only 1-5mm in port size, very hard to flow 30+L min through that without going into high pressures (hydraulic pressures)
 
For that 1-2 seconds where your oil pump has sucked air, the 3L stored in the accumulator is adequate to prevent bearing damage.

The pump will prevent any oil just draining back into the sump because it rotating and still producing a head pressure (If that's the right term).