Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello all,
Have previously posted a question on this topic, however, have now purchased this sump (photo attached). Does anyone know for definite what this sump was originally used on? Ford obviously went to the trouble of making this with an additional small bowl at the front, therefore their engineers must have had good reason for this. Not sure what the purpose of the small front bowl is, other than oil cooling.

I can confirm that the bolt holes in the sump match exactly to those on the Crossflow 711M block.

I?m sure some of you knowledgeable guys will have a definitive answer to this, also sure, that this is quite an interesting sump.

Thank you

Additional photo

a quick search of the reference site for these matters produces (key word "sump bowl") :

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=28539&start=

That is one of my old postings but the fitment to Auto Escorts has been disputed, all I can say is that I only ever saw that type of sump fitted on Auto Escorts during the time I lived in South Africa.
I also had one fitted on my Twin Cam Seven and never had an oil surge issue, I still have one of those sumps but it will not fit an Elan with out modifiying the lower chassis brace as it catches the sump.

If this was not made for a Escort with automatic box, is it a possibility that this could have been made by Ford for an Escort twin cam ? What does anyone think ?

Thank you

I doubt it, we never had T.C. Escorts in S.Africa and I used to buy these sumps at the scrapyards and I saw these sumps on auto Escorts which had 711 engines.
I fitted one to my Seven, I sill have another one and there was one on ebay reciently.......unless its the one you bought.

From the TC Escort manual.

It's almost a 100% bet that the front bowl is there for additional oil cooling and no other purpose. In an Escort the front crossmember and steering rack prevent a large front mounted bowl sump from being used. This sump was probably only ever used in South Africa because:
a) South Africa is a severe hot climate application
b) South Africa manufactured crossflow engines locally and hence it would have made economic sense for Ford SA to tailor specific features to better suit the local market. This sump would have been much cheaper to manufacture than the buy in of an in line oil cooler from an external supplier.

I've never seen such a sump on an Australian Escort (despite some area of Australia being pretty hot too!!) but in Australia's case all the engines were fully imported CBU from the UK and it wouldn't have made much sense to change unless there were significant in field problems being reported.

In an Escort the rear sump bowl is tucked in out of the airflow from both the fan and road draught. This is far less of a problem in a Cortina or Elan with a front mounted sump bowl receiving both fan airflow and road draught. All the sporting Twin Cam / RS1600 and even the pushrod engine Escort Mexico had an additional oil cooler as standard.

The auto models were probably deemed to be a more severe case than manuals because of the lower engine speed with foot on brake in "drive" and the torque convertor load.

Use of this sump probably adds very little benefit in a car where a rear bowl sump is not specifically required.

Hello
As you have seen these sumps on automatic Escorts in South Africa, then maybe it was the South African Ford engineers who made this specifically as you say for oil cooling. Yes, the sump I have pictured is the one you saw on ebay and the one I purchased. You say you still have one of these sumps, might this be for sale and if so at what price ?

Thank you