Oil accumulator

[Rich H]

OK I've been thinking about oil pressure.

The ideal solution is an Accumate oil accumulator but they are expensive so how about this:

A suitable pressure vessel with a solenoid valve on the base (That can hold 10+ bar) and an air pressure inlet of some sort at the top all mounted so the bottle is vertical and the valve is at the base.

The valve is plumbed in to the oil system via the oil cooler pipework (Possibly not the best place).

Plumb it all in and wire the solenoid valve into the FPR. Pump air into the bottle with the engine off to ensure it is full of air.

So as you drive about the oil pressure 'charges' the accumulator to system pressure and the accumulator damps the speed of some of the oil pressure variations. When you switch off the valve closes and the accumulator remains at the pressure it was at on ignition off (On my Turbo that would be 2 bar)

When you come to start the valve opens with the FPR coming on and the 'shot' of 2 bar oil is squirted in, boosting oil pressure rapidly.

OK the bottle will need to be carefully selected for safety and the location also needs to be carefully selected but what do you all think?

Rich

[gdr]

Sounds much the same as an Accusump but without the piston that separates the air from the oil reservoir. I think problem without the piston is that as soon as the solenoid is opened, the air precharge will discharge into your oil system before the oil pressure comes up to put oil back into the reservoir. Also piston in reservoir means it can be mounted horizontally.

[Sanjøy]

Need to get a sodastream logo on it

[Rich H]

OK why is this different to the accusump? Won't that do basically the same job?

It'll boost the pressure a bit and accelerate the rise in pressure reducing the time take to build pressure.

Trouble is it'll be cock all use on the Esprit as the hot idle pressure it feck all as standard..

[steviej]

You could use a small fire extinguisher bottle as a reservoir, friend of mine uses this ytpe of thing as an air accumulator for a paddle type gearshift which is very clever, and effective , also could the proposed solenoid not work between certain pressures, ie open when it has the 2 bar pressure when FPR is activated to let the oil out, but closes at say 1bar and keep the air charge at less than 1 bar so it doesnt escape each time its used ?

[robin]

What solution is this problem looking for .... in other words, what problem are you trying to solve? There are two that spring to mind:

(1) Oil pressure at start up (a non-issue, I think)
(2) Oil starvation due to oil moving away from pump pickup in sump (i.e. a poor man's dry sump kit).

Cheers,
Robin