Lowered Sump

In My May update I targeted getting the engine installed...best laid plans...what I had not realised and it was not until I came to mate the gearbox to the engine was that the standard oil sump on the Zetec engine needs to be replaced with a lowered sump. Fitting the starter motor is not possible with the standard sump in place.

Total cock up on my part - I assumed (wrongly) the lowered sump was more of an option as opposed to a necessity. So two options open to me either the Raceline sump or the new ATR lowered sump from GBS. Both do the job, one is £200 cheaper than the other...lets do the maths...hmm ATR it is then!

This is actually a nice bit of fabrication on the part of GBS/ATR and it comes with all the fittings - cork gasket, oil pick up, bolts etc - everything needed for converting stock sump to lowered sump.

First task is drain the oil, easy enough task of loosening the sump plug - leave the dip stick in it slows the flow of oil and allows you to line the catch pan up thus not sending oil everywhere. Looking at the oil coming out it was a curious sludgy green colour - guess it has been sat in the engine a while, think I will replace with fresh oil when I come to refill.

Once oil has drained, time to loosen x12 bolts from the black sump pan - these are not on too tight and came off quite easily - note a couple of these are quite well hidden so double check all out before you try to pries the black pan from the main sump - you will need a screw driver and rubber mallet to gently tease the black pan off - it will come eventually once you have got it starting to pull away it comes off quite easily.

Taking the black pan off exposes the oil pick up which is secured by two hex bolts and a further support arm bolt - this needs to come off before you can remove the main sump.

Lastly, the main sump secured by x10 bolts, again not too tightly bolted in and all came away quite easily - once loosened the main sump came away from the main engine block very straightforward.

So, doing the above has removed the stock sump from the engine block - reverse engineer the new ATR sump onto the engine block.

Firstly, ensure the magnetic sump plug is inserted and fully tightened. Dry fit the new sump to the engine block and check hole alignment. Mine needed some slight adjustment in opening up the holes a little more to ensure all fully aligned.

Once happy with that, time to apply the cork gasket to the lowered sump - I used some blue gasket seal applying this all the way round the sump and on the ends applied quite a liberal amount. The cork gasket was applied on top of the seal and I popped the screws into the holes in reverse to keep the gasket in position whilst the seal adhered to the gasket. As an extra measure as it was time to finish for the night  i lowered the engine onto the sump and left it overnight to provide some weight whilst the seal "went off"

The gasket was now in position, all ready for final fit. First the new oil pickup needed to the fitted - straight forward two bolts securing it. 

I then smeared some Vaseline along the top of the cork gasket and mated the lowered sump to the engine. The sump was then secured with the x10 bolts and tightened - Be very careful not to over tighten the bolts and crush the cork gasket you only need to tighten plus qtr turn - use feel. (NB the bolts supplied all had threadlock pre-applied so you don't need to add any more when fitting)

Plenty of photos here - appreciate the ATR product is quite a new item and finding fitting guidance on the web is sparce to non-existent, for those fitting the sump I hope the above gives some useful pointers.