I assume they purged the lines before the video. In my mind the lines would be the only issue with air in the tank. Canton told me to cycle it many times before hitting the track so it burps all the air out. I assume the long drive to Dallas will take care of that for you.

I found an extensive write up, geared towards offroad but is extremely informative.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Oiling/

Now that I have the car driving and have put miles on it, I thought I would circle back and update this thread. I ended up plumbing my system exactly like the picture in the first post with 1 exception. I added the pressure switch to the port in the front side of the LS block instead of in the external oil filter mount. It turned out to be a cleaner solution and would detect pressure loss that much earlier.

I needed an adapter to mount the pressure switch to the block, which I found by Googling the sizes I needed (cannot remember the exact part right now, but I think it was an M16 to 1/4" NPT adapter). You also need a crush washer for the metric side to seal the threads.

I mounted the Accusump itself on my front sway bar cross tube. This was a perfect spot, but it required an exact fit between my fan shroud and my crank pulley. I was concerned about making a bracket to clamp onto the tube which we could then attach the Accusump to. Some time Googling turned up these:

https://www.alabamaindustrialproduct...ducts/1290.jpg

http://alabamaindustrialproducts.com..._Hardware.html

They make them in aluminum instead of the plastic, and that's what I used. They are big, as you can see below, and they aren't going anywhere. They offer a much smaller size, but I was concerned about the 1/4" bolts being strong enough to hold the weight. They probably would have been fine. Here's the ones I purchased:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...pstarn78t6.jpg

The nice thing about the heavier duty clamp is that the plate on the end was thick enough to drill and tap to screw the bolts into to hold the billet clamps in place. That saved an extra piece for that purpose.

Here is a shot of it in place before clocking it at the correct angle:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psbboodabk.jpg

With both clamps in place, I could sit the unit down for the first time to gauge how it would fit. Note the fan shroud was not in place when I did this:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psmtprh5bw.jpg

Here's a good shot of the plumbing at the end of the Accusump. You can see all the lines I have running through this area, it gets crowded:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psu46n074v.jpg

Next I reinstalled the shroud. This is when things got tight. The billet touched the fan, and if I clocked it to clear, it almost touched the PS pulley. I wanted to be able to remove and replace the PS pulley without having to remove the Accusump, so I ended up clearancing the billet bracket about 3/8", which was ok because there is a lot of meat there.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psk3bj6rbp.jpg

Here you can see at the other end how close the gauge comes to the radiator hose. I screwed up initially and clocked things such that I couldn't get to the shraeder valve, so we had to turn it and adjust.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psbotpmq8v.jpg

That's it. I wired the 1 wire from the relay inside the car to the solenoid valve, then the other side of the valve to the pressure switch, and finally the other side of the pressure switch to ground. When both the relay is on (which supplies 12V to the valve) and the pressure switch is active (making a ground connection), the valve will open and release the oil pressure into the system.

Right now I have the Holley controlling the relay to enable it before start (which acts as a pre-luber), and any time RPM is above 1800. The latter was somewhat arbitrary based on my previous oil pressure levels. Now, with the new pump, I have higher idle pressure. High enough in fact that I probably could have just wired the valve to ignition voltage. Oh well, it's wired in now...

Seems to be functioning as it's supposed to, except as I will discuss in part 2 of this post...

During my research into adding the Accusump, I ran across some complaints from people who had the blow-off valve open and spew oil into their engine compartments. It seems that the common problem for them was the air pressure gauge was allowing pressure to escape, and when oil pressure built, it would cause the piston to slap the back face, sending a shock wave of pressure back through the tube and causing the blow off valve to open.

Well, it took me about 1 week before this happened. I managed to make my trip to Dallas for the GG event without any problems. But the day after I got back, at some point I lost air pressure and sure enough, ended up with an mess of oil. I noticed this because the oil pressure gauge didn't show the pre-lube before start once. So I got to clean up that mess.

For the moment, I have removed the Canton gauge and plugged the hole. Since I have the USCA event this weekend, I wanted to make sure I didn't chance any more problems. This works, I just pressurized the air side and used a tire pressure gauge to bleed down to the pressure I wanted. I can see the pre-lube working, the only downside is that I cannot look and see the pressure on the gauge face right now.

I will order some kind of replacement gauge next week and replace the apparently crappy Canton one. I could run a remote gauge somewhere, but I like the location down low and out of the way. So I'll get a similar replacement gauge.

Cleaning up oil mist isn't a lot of fun...

Hey Carbuff. I just ordered the 3 quart accusump for my 70 Trans Am. This past weekend at the track I saw the oil pressure drop down to 5 pounds when braking from 130 mph on the straight away. That's way to low. Luckily the engine is ok.

Regarding the accusump pressure gauge "popping off" what was your permanent solution?

-John

I hope everything is ok on the inside. Take a close look at your oil during the next change...

Regarding the gauge / blowoff valve problem, for the USCA event I just removed the gauge and plugged the hole. I used a tire pressure gauge to set the precharge. I've purchased a new gauge which I hope will be of better quality that I will be installing on Wednesday. I'll know if it works better by Friday I hope since I have a track day that day. I'll be keeping a close eye on the gauge between runs...

I wonder if you can incorporate a fluid isolater like the fuel gauge set ups or just go with an electric gauge. It would be a shame to lose an engine because of something that is supposed to protect it.

I would pull the oil filter off, cut it open and inspect it for debris. The gauge is an average of the actual pressure, my guess is it went to 0. Imho, if your pressure is going down under braking.... you need a better pan/baffling in addition to the accusump.

I think I could, but I believe the real problem was just a cheap gauge. But you just gave me an idea to consider. I have a couple of free inputs on my Holley HP EFI controller. I'm not sure if I can do this, but I may see if I can add a pressure sensor on the air side of the Accusump where the gauge attaches and then wire that into the Holley. I have a warning light on my dash, so I believe I could turn that on if the Accusump air pressure went to 0.

Update?
 

Brian ... good reading here, did you replace the gauge yet? Also, how did you keep the air side of the canister higher than the oil side with those clamps you installed on the sway bar?

Michael