Update on the dry sump front,
I had sent my Spiess adaptor plate to Saxon Motorsport to double check it'll fit my block, I had noticed that one of the holes had been threaded but thought it would be a case of boring the hole out a little and selecting a different thread to tap it again and the amount of sealant that was used on the face of the plate (block side). The plate was like that because it looked to by originally a plate for an 8v Spiess block and then it was altered to suit a 16v block.
Anyway Saxon were not happy to use it on my engine and with this blow up we both don't want anything other than the correct parts! So back to the drawing board where after a few emails I got a contact phone number for a certain Mike Callaghan..... Had a very good chat with him and he's a very helpful bloke, turned out he use to live and work in Wales for 2 years and his mate was from near me. Mad how small the world can be sometimes! Asked him about the F3 dry sump parts and if he still had any there.... he did just one still on a block that he was going to use on a turbo build but changed to a multi stage pump, so agreed a price for the plate & pump because he didn't want to split them and 5 days later the parts are on my dining table!
Much prefer this design because it included the oil filter where the Spiess plate didn't have this and the filter would need to be located else where.
Mike Callaghan's Pump vs Spiess Pump (both are Titan pumps)
The drive gear on the pump from Mike Callaghan is made of bass where the other Spiess pump looks to be steel or the same material had the intermediate shift. The idea of the bass gear is if the pump jams or something gets stuck in the gears the bass gear will be destroyed instead of both of the gears, the gear on the pump is much easier to change than the shaft (read on).
Now the intermediate shaft, you may remember from my previous posts that the gear on the shaft is very worn and no good. I tired looking for the actual gear but had no joy unless I spend big money on a one off gear to be made and then remove the damaged gear and heat the replacement on, an email to Titan and they pointed me in the right direction. Originally these pumps were designed for the BDA & Lotus Twin Cam engine so a jackshaft from one of these engines will have the gear I need on my shaft. A little google search and I found Burton Performance supply both the shafts the BDA was £150, Lotus Twin Cam £98, I've purchased the Lotus jackshaft and Im going to get the shaft machined to get the gear off and then have it bored out and heated onto my intermediate shaft..... Job Done!
This is the Lotus shaft at the moment, will get in touch with my mate on the weekend to do the machining work.