Time to update my progress on the Zetec sump-shortening.
I did get one of the pans suggested by Reddragon, and for many it may help for clearance issues. Unfortunately, it's only about 1/8" shorter overall than my OEM pan, so it didn't give me the ground clearance I needed (I was looking for about 1 1/2"). If anyone needs one of those, let me know - I can make you SUCH a deal!
Anyway I decided to shorten the steel pan myself. I got 1.5" out of it, which takes me from a paltry 3" of ground clearance to a respectable (well, usable) 4 1/2", or maybe even 4 3/4". Thankfully, I just picked up a spare engine, now mounted inverted on my engine stand, which makes working on the pan a breeze. Once I've finished the pan, I'll install it on the engine in my Locost when I pull the engine in preparation for frame painting.
Interestingly, I was able to still use the original plastic oil pickup tube! As it happens, the Zetec pickup tube has a screen (of course), plus a kind of flattened conical "snorkel" below that. The snorkel can be shortened over 1.5", while still maintaining the integrity of the pickup, screen, screen holder, etc. In my case, I've left clearance of about 2 mm. between the bottom of the pickup and the bottom of the pan itself, so even very low oil volume in the pan (say, during hard cornering or braking) should still keep the snout of the pickup submerged in oil.
The bottom of the pan (not yet welded closed) is now parallel with the ground when the engine is level in the frame (the pan used to hang down 1 1/2" lower on the right side than the left - presumably, the engine was tilted in the Focus...? Setting up a jig to accurately mark the cut line was a fun task, as the pan had to be mounted on a 13.8 degree angle so I could mark around the perimeter (I screwed it down onto a piece of plywood, then used wedges to prop the plywood up at the correct angle). Then, I made a jig to hold a silver Sharpie that I could use to circumnavigate the pan & accurately draw the cut line. Worked great!
I cut the pan with my 4 1/2" angle grinder & .5 mm cutting disc, which made short work of it. I used the grinder to cut the snout on the pickup tube, too.
I calculated that shortening the pan removed a tad under .5 liters from the pan's total volume. To be safe, I've fabricated a steel "box" that extends the deepest portion of the pan rearward, increasing its total volume by over 1 liter (almost 1.5 liters). So, in total, I'm up between 0.5 and 1.0 liter over stock capacity. While I haven't checked the dipstick for clearance yet (my spare engine doesn't have one), I don't think it will be a problem, as it goes into the left side of the pan, where it was only shortened by maybe 1 mm.
I'll be making a single-piece bottom for the pan, covering both the cut area + the extension area. I'll be drilling several holes to allow the oil to flow to & from the extension, which will provide some baffling as a bonus (it didn't have any originally).
To be on the safe side, I'm going to have a local specialty welder TIG weld it for me, after I tack it all together with my MIG. It's not that I don't trust my MIG welds, but rather that I believe there will be less chance of a leak with TIG, and besides...them TIG welds is purty!!
Here's a few pics of it, in-progress. Hopefully, this will be helpful to others in the same predicament!!
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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.
http://zetec7.webs.com/