importance of drip pan under engine

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falcon
Rough Carpentry Apprentice
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Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:58 am
Location: Sheridan, Wyoming

importance of drip pan under engine

Post by falcon »

I am installing a beta diesel in my Cheoy lee and am not happy with the metal drip pan that originally came with the atomic 4. I am concerned that it may oil can and act to amplify engine noise.This is probably a stupid question, but how important is the drip pan under an engine anyway? Is it a legal requirement? If its required/important, would building something out of epoxy coated marine plywood be a better materiel? Thank you in advance for your input.
Cheoy Lee Frisco Flyer "work in progress"
ILikeRust
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Re: importance of drip pan under engine

Post by ILikeRust »

I don't know that it's a legal requirement, but it sure seems like a good idea, given that it's generally illegal to discharge oily bilge water. You want some way to keep oil and other engine fluids out of your bilge.

And yeah, a fiberglass pan would be quieter than a sheet-metal one.
Bill T.
Richmond, VA

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible." - T E Lawrence
Quetzalsailor
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Re: importance of drip pan under engine

Post by Quetzalsailor »

Drip pans are dandy, particularly if you have a never-neverland under the engine like I do. Things you drop are gone forever. There's a nice new arrival in mine: a roll of electrical tape last Saturday. There's also a coil for an Atomic 4; there have been two diesels in the boat since there was an A4.

Neither are magnetic.

I'd be happy to have a drip pan. Not only to catch what I drop, but what the engine occasionally drops. I judge it totally impossible to build a useful one in Quetzal. I doubt your metal pan would make that much noise, but if it did, you'd probably already know it. If it's really 'oilcanning', hit it with a hammer and dent/deform it.

My ex and I once had a '73 Plymouth Scamp. It used to make oilcanning noises from somewhere in the back of the car on the country roads outside Wilmington DE. I had her lock me in the trunk and drive over some known noise-producing bumps. I found the offending panel. She let me out(!) and I whanged the offending place with a ball pein hammer. Cured!
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Rachel
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Re: importance of drip pan under engine

Post by Rachel »

I can't remember about requirements, but I like to have one. I've made one on the past by just tabbing in a flat piece of fiberglass board from side-to-side of the bilge "walls" and then putting fiddle-like ends on fore and aft. That depends on shape/access needs though.

On the metal one: I would imagine you would keep a "diaper" on there most of the time anyway - I wonder if that would help to eliminate sound problems? I'm not sure as they've obviously not very heavy/dense.
falcon
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Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:58 am
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Re: importance of drip pan under engine

Post by falcon »

Thank you all for your helpful input. My plan now is to build a pan out of marine plywood and fiberglass. "Never never land" is an apt description of the area below the engine mounts. Thanks again for your help!
Cheoy Lee Frisco Flyer "work in progress"
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