Author Topic: The Cosworth YBB Europa  (Read 7323 times)

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Offline Grumblebuns

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The Cosworth YBB Europa
« on: Sunday,June 12, 2016, 12:51:25 PM »
                                                   The Cosworth YBB Europa – Introduction

I picked up 3631R as a soon to be abandoned project around the summer of 2006.The owner, working in the auto industry in the Detroit area, could see the economic writing on the wall and needed to get rid of all his Lotus projects.  He estimated that he had more than $40K into the Europa and looking at everything that came with the car, I have no reason not to believe him. With his asking price, he lost well over half of what he put into it.

The car is a 1973 (build date 6/73)  Europa Special with the following major modifications:

custom Spyder chassis and suspension
normally aspirated 2L Cosworth YBB motor with dual Weber 45 DCOE
dry sump oil system
Hewland Mk9 5 speed transaxle with Quaife LSD
front/rear Wilwood calipers with hydraulic parking brake
14” Panasport with Ford Mustang hub pattern
custom Griffin aluminum radiator (all aluminum spare radiator for a SBC included if necessary)
hydraulic clutch with internal slave cylinder
all alloy custom fuel tanks
new paint
boxes of spares and numerous items too small to mention
probably other items that have slipped my mind at the moment

Pictures of the car can be found at:
http://www.lotuseuropa.org/gallery/cosworth
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/lotuseuropa/files/Frank%27s%20TC%20Special/

I will be using the forum as a build log as I progress in completing this massive project.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #1 on: Sunday,June 12, 2016, 01:06:16 PM »
I decided to move the YBB Europa discussion over to it's own thread.

The 21 feet of total  braided oil hose needed is needed deceiving. From the outlet of the oil pump to the oil tank is around 7'. I will need three of the 7' hoses from the oil pump to the oil tank. My other issue is the location of the oil cooler, where to put it for optimum cooling. There is no spot in the engine compartment with decent airflow. Running it to the front is an option with the problem of a long run of hose and possible flow and pressure issues as noted by someone earlier. I've attached some pictures of the proposed run of the oil lines. 

Offline BDA

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #2 on: Sunday,June 12, 2016, 05:35:34 PM »
I fabricated a duct for my oil cooler and vented it on the side of the license plate. At the time, I was expecting there would be a low pressure area behind the car and air would be drawn from under the car, through the cooler and out through the louvers. I found out later that the air flow is actually the opposite - in the louvers, through the cooler and up through the screens on the boot lid. Either way, my oil never gets to hot (I have a 13 row cooler). I also have an oil thermostat.

My engine has the dry sump pumps that mount where the stock oil pump is so it doesn't require quite as much hose as yours, but there is a fair amount of -10 hose running around. My pump required a very pricey 270 deg. hose end along with several 90 deg ones!. I never measured it because I had hose left over from when I was an Earl's Distributor. Between the pressure and scavenge lines, the lines to the external filter and the cooler, I wouldn't be surprised to find I had much more than 21 feet.

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress!

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #3 on: Monday,June 13, 2016, 07:45:31 AM »
Even with the backward flow of air into the engine bay from the outside through your air cooler, your oil is getting cooled. Looking at all of the options, that location is probably the only place for the cooler without adding additional ducting to the body work, type 47 style or running  lines to the front of the car and installing the cooler there.  The entire section of my license plate area is cut out so I'll won't have any interference issues as seen from the attached picture

As far as the lines themselves, I used a section of heater hose to do a mock run to located where the hose go for minimum bend radius. I'm suspecting that the braided hose will be very stiff have a large radius in terms of bending around obstructions. What I'll probably do is to buy one 7' section of braided hose with one AN fitting and actually run the hose from pump to tank for the actual length. Go back to the hose shop and have them cut the hose to specification and add the other fitting. Do the same thing for the other hoses.

I'm assuming that your oil cooler is between the scavenge pump outlet and your oil tank? I have two scavenge pumps so one line will go directly to the oil tank while the other line will be routed to the cooler then to the oil tank.

Offline BDA

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #4 on: Monday,June 13, 2016, 09:29:37 AM »
I assume you're going to use the stainless steel braided rubber hose (the normal type for oil and fuel), you can make the hose yourself with common tools. i used snips to cut the hose and the ends are assembled on it with a vice and wrenches. You can get fancy vice jaw covers (very nice to have if you're making hose) to hold the ends, but aluminum and maybe duct tape works well to keep from scuffing up the ends. The fancy shops use chop saws, etc. but they really aren't necessary. Doing it yourself will make things a lot easier as you can fit the hose runs as you build rather than measuring. Keep in mind you'll not only be worried about oil lines, but also fuel, brake (or have they already been made?), oil pressure sender, etc. So you might want to tool up.

As a general rule in racing, you want to filter hot oil (so you have less pressure drop across the filter) and you want to cool filtered oil. The latter so that if you blow up your motor, you don't get trash in your cooler! We won't be blowing up motors now, will we!? But it makes for good practice. Then you want to feed the engine cooler oil.

I looked up what Dave (Bean) recommended and I had a vague recollection that I originally differed with his opinion and then another vague recollection that it actually ended up being the same when it was all finished so I thought I follow the hoses to confirm. Well, it really is a snake pit under the carbs so the hoses aren't easy to follow without crawling under the car, etc. (your pump is different so my particular set up is not as important to you) - which I'm happy to do if you still have questions, but think the rule I laid out gets to the nub of it.

With that in mind, you would filter your scavenge oil, then cool it, and then put it in the tank. If you use a thermostat, you would put that between the filter and the cooler. Your pressure pump is obviously fed from your tank.

I highly recommend Earl's hose ends - especially for the angled ends because they swivel and can be adjusted after they are assembled. That's very important if you have a hose with an angled end on both sides! Earl's probably has the largest selection of ends (e.g. hose to male BSP - useful for Brit dry sump pumps) and their quality is excellent. I'm sure you can find it in your neck of the woods but if not, JEGS, and Summit Racing carry it, I believe. Here's the catalog: https://www.holley.com/brands/earls/. There's a nice video there that tells you how to assemble the fitting to the hose. They recommend a hack saw (or cut off wheel). When I was selling it, it was a real shoestring operation so there was no expensive cut off wheel in my garage! I started with the hacksaw, but eventually migrated to snips. I found it much easier.

They list bend radiuses in the catalog but in general, your heater hose trick should be pretty accurate. On the other hand, if you make your own hoses as I recommend, you'll know exactly what you're dealing with.

A precaution - the braid is very abrasive so you want to securely mount your hose anywhere it might mess up your paint or wear through electrical or heat insulation or body work. Heat shrink tube is handy to protect particular areas. They sell stainless steel braided hose that is completely covered for this purpose, but I think that sort ruins the effect - but maybe I'm just a traditionalist! There are some new types of hose and fittings since I was involved that you might want to explore, but as I say, I'm a traditionalist and I just like the stainless steel braid with the red and blue ends.

 

Offline jbcollier

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #5 on: Monday,June 13, 2016, 09:40:37 AM »
Wow!  I think I want to have your Europa's children!!

Offline BDA

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #6 on: Monday,June 13, 2016, 10:19:53 AM »
Was just taking another look at your pictures... where do you drive your alternator?

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #7 on: Tuesday,June 14, 2016, 01:05:15 PM »
I using the dry sump system drawing in the Burton Power catalog as my reference:

https://view.publitas.com/burtonpower/2016-catalogue-booklet/page/36

I'm a bit unclear on whether the Burton Power drawing matches your recommendations for the flow path of components. I have a two scavenge, one pressure oil pump similar to the drawing.

You also got me rethinking on how to get my hoses made up. I'll do some more research on the subject and maybe make up my own hoses instead.

To answer you question on the alternator drive, the crankshaft pulley drives three belts, one is for the alternator. Next time I'm under the car, I'll post pictures on the photo album.




   

Offline BDA

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #8 on: Tuesday,June 14, 2016, 04:22:24 PM »
You said you had two scavenge stages on your pump and I glossed over that! Sorry! Mine has only one so it's a simpler situation.

So I looked back at the documentation on my old Lola T492 race car to see if it had a similar setup to yours and it did. In fact, it is plumbed just like the layout in your link - one scavenge line goes directly to the tank, the other goes to the cooler and then to the tank, and the filter is between the engine and the pressure pump which is obviously fed from the tank.

I also googled "drysump plumbing schematic" and got a lot of different schemes. Some opposite to "my" rule, and some following it. Some pumps apparently have multiple scavenge inputs and one output. You might want to take a look at them here: https://www.google.com/search?q=dry+sump+plumbing+schematic&newwindow=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUx5Gu0ajNAhVB4iYKHSS-DhQQsAQIHQ&biw=1151&bih=871#imgrc=_. You might enjoy the picture of the Chevy with the outrageous snake pit of hoses!

I think the scheme you pointed to will be fine - I hope your tank has two inlets. Normally, they are designed to swirl the oil around the tank to bleed the air out of the oil like a coolant swirl pot although the tank on my Lola was a rectangularly shaped affair so that's preferred but not absolutely necessary.

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday,June 15, 2016, 06:34:51 AM »
Thanks for the link. I'll do more research and then decide on my plan of action.

My tank does have two inlets. Unfortunately they are both AN12 while my pump fittings are AN10. I hope I can fit both sizes to the same hose. With a remote filter, oil cooler, breather tank and thermostat, there is going to be a tangle hoses everywhere, definitely more than the 21' I first thought.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

Offline BDA

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday,June 15, 2016, 07:46:56 AM »
I didn't see a picture of your pump, but normally, they are made with either BSP (if it's English) or US straight thread ports but they might have NPT. There are fittings you can get from any size you're likely to have in your pump to -12 'nipple'. On the other side, if the fittings in your tank are not welded in, you will able to replace them with -10 ones. For a street application, and even a racing one, -10 is plenty big enough. Back in the dark ages when I was racing the Formula Atlantic guys (running BDAs) mostly used -12, but -10 was not unheard of. It really depends on your budget and use. If you're looking for the n-th degree of performance, you'd want -12, but those hose ends get a lot more expensive the bigger they get! As a data point, I use -10 on my BDA.

Vinyl hose like you can get at Lowes is fine for your breathers. I bought a little plastic catch can from Summit or somewhere for my breathers. You can also get filtered vents to use instead.

You will be buying a lot of hose, but the ends is where a lot of your money will go! If you want to go the -10 route and your fittings are welded to your tank, it will very likely make economic sense to have them cut off and -10 fittings welded on. I suspect that they screw in, though.

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #11 on: Wednesday,June 15, 2016, 11:36:18 AM »
I think I screwed up when I ordered my tank. I wrongly assumed that the fittings on my pump were AN12 (they're AN10) so ordered a tank with AN12 fittings and unfortunately, they are welded in. If the hoses are sized for a specific AN fitting then I will have to buy three AN12 to AN10 reducers for the tank if there is such a thing.
.

Offline BDA

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #12 on: Wednesday,June 15, 2016, 01:30:47 PM »
It's been a while and I think there are adapters, but I really think you should investigate how much it will take to cut those off and weld new ones on. Otherwise, you'll end up with something kind of 'clunky'. I think this is the adaptor you'd need (https://www.holley.com/products/plumbing_an_fittings_and_hose/adapters/an_to_an_adapters/parts/989410ERL). The 'usual' hose most people use is the Earl's Perform-O-Flex If you want to save money, Earl's has some more economical alternatives that you can explore. Take a look at the catalog to see how you might want to go.

Offline LotusJoe

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #13 on: Thursday,June 16, 2016, 10:00:49 AM »
I think I screwed up when I ordered my tank. I wrongly assumed that the fittings on my pump were AN12 (they're AN10) so ordered a tank with AN12 fittings and unfortunately, they are welded in. If the hoses are sized for a specific AN fitting then I will have to buy three AN12 to AN10 reducers for the tank if there is such a thing.
.
Joji, If you want, bring the tank by my shop and I will weld in new AN10 fittings.
Joe Irwin
3927R TC Special
(The Classic Barn Find)


Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: The Cosworth YBB Europa
« Reply #14 on: Thursday,June 16, 2016, 11:01:22 AM »
Joe, I'll get ahold of you next week. I may go that route.

Joji