I know the Eagle Talon (DSM's) and a few turbo engines in the past have had "oil squirters" installed from the factory. I understand that some DSM guys go as far as to have their blocks converted to an oil-squirter design when adding a turbo if their particular year/block didn't have one.

A recent thread here mentioned squirters dropping piston crown temps by 20 to 30*F.

So here's my questions:

1) Would it be possible to build a higher compression by utilizing squirters in an NA application? if so, any estimates on C/R gain?

2) Does the SBC/LT1 design lend itself to this type of conversion? or is this just asking for problems with block integrity?

3) Has anyone actually done this with a Gen I/II block?

finally 4) would there be any appeciable weight gain due to oil cling on the piston? particuarlly to the point that you'd see HP losses or nessesitate a change in the bob weights when balancing?

Just curious really, kind of deciding how crazy a C/R can get on 94 octane pump-gas. (aluminum head, ceramic coatings, reverse-flow cooling, and conservative low-rpm spark advance makes me think 12:1 isn't that insane... with a big enough cam of course).

 

American engines have used this too to keep the pins happy and cool the pistons some as well. It doesn't change power really a lot or allow more compression though since the piston usually isn't lighting stuff off.

 

I thought piston temp was reduced by more like 100 degrees F.

These are some pretty small holes with pressed in nozzles in and around the mains. I doubt there is a significant reduction in block strength. Although poor workmanship and high hp could probably generate some stress risers.

Flooding the bottom of the piston with oil would heighten my oil control awareness in terms of the ring package.
And, maybe make me think a little bit more about a crankcase evacuation pump.

Check out some of the offshore powerboat sites, these guys love to use oil to cool pistons and valve springs. Also, David Vizzard has authored some thoughs on this subject.

The good thing is you can use a big block pump on the small block to meet the increased oil demand.

With a big enough cam you could probably run just about any compression ratio you want, it'll bleed off all the cylinder pressure down low.

There was some guy with a nova who participated in the hot rod power tour with a 280 degree duration cam at .050" lift with an insane compression ratio. As long as he didn't floor the car all was good. I have the story at home post back it you want some more specifics, I'll bring it tomorrow. The car ran 9s on race gas, and the engine was build by a shop in the Southwest.

 

I would rather use "coatings" for these two issues, cooling and increased wear resistance. Spraying oil in the crankcase is a band-aid I'd think and also has to cost a few HP from the parisitic drag. We already fight HP loss due to oil clinging every where.
Cryo the wrist pins and coat the pistons.

 

Cryo the pins to reduce the heat? Not for long!


I agree with the coating vs. oil squirters, except maybe for valve springs on Cup engines or similar endurance applications. Lots of good surface area on a spring to dissipate the heat to the oil.

 

Coatings basic purpose on a piston top is not only to keep the heat out of the piston but to keep the heat in the chamber therefore making it a much more thermally efficient engine.

12:1 is not that high for a street gas motor, if you do not do everything correctly, then it starts getting into problems. The place you are going to find most of your problems is in the lower RPM at WOT with a lot of timing. That's going to cause detonation. This also gets back to the DCR thing, the actual dynamic compression ratio is what counts in terms of detonation. The right camshaft and the right compression ratio if you build a motor correctly (meaning you are aware of quench and hot spots) will not have problems. 13:1 on pump gas, in a street car is even doable, you need a good amount of cam for that but it's not a problem.

Oil squirters are a solution, but I really don't think that they are needed unless you got into seriously high cylinder temps which is more likely in a blown or turbo motor, much less likely in a NA motor even with high DCR's and high Static Compression Ratios.l

Bret

 

I had the LT1 block I am using in my lifelong Dominion project set up with a piston oiling system. The set up is made by Bo Laws' Performance. Prolly not needed, but it is cool to say I have it. Just like the main stud girdle, Dominion heads, and other blah blah blah.

 

Hey Bob send me any info you have on that main stud girdle! Been looking with no luck.

Thanks man.

OH YEAH I think piston oiling on the street with a mild N/A motor is alot of work for little return

 

All I could find was this quote from a thread from a while back:

"A company called "NOWAK" was making them for SB Chevys. Pretty nice piece, I have one on the LT1 block that is being used for my Dominion project. They had them available for up to 383 stroker combos...since I'm doing a 396 I may have to clearance it a bit. I'm using it in conjunction w/ 4 bolt splayed caps, so hopefully my bottom end will be as solid as a rock."

I remember at the time that I couldn't find a website for NOWAK either. Maybe we need to do a yellow pages search in NJ/NY?

 

I couldn't find anything for NOWAK either. I guess they might have gone outa biz since I bought my girdle. But I did find this:

http://hawaiiracing.com/maingirdles.html

 

That might have been the thread I put some responses in. I think I said 20-30 deg. C though. If I didn't I meant to.

I can't see this being worth the trouble for an engine that wasn't designed from the outset to use them.

As a point of reference our cooling jets flow about 1 liter/min for each cylinder to get the above mentioned temperature drop.

To another question you had, we recently plugged our squirters to do some oil consumption comparisons and proceeded to see preignition on the #1 cylinder and killed the piston quickly. We didn't have our knock sensors hooked up. However, it does show that it's quite possible for oil jet cooling to allow more ignition timing or CR on the same octane.