S54 oil pan

[Bd411]

I recently picked up a s54 oil pan and pickup to fit on to my 95m3 (s50us) to remedy any risk of oil starvation, I will be sending the pump to vac for the high volume rotor and upgraded shaft.

I have a question regarding the I.D of my pan
Casting on the bottom of the pan is
7 836 385 .9
Below that is
31 6753 .590 2063 3

I can’t seem to find what chassis this pan came out of on realoem.com

This is mostly for my own mental notes.
Thanks

[aeronaut]

I can't help with the pan ID (I think there were 2 updates to the pan?).
But I did not have good luck with the VAC upgraded pump, one of the pump gears Woodruff keys sheared, twice. If I were putting an S54 pan/pump setup on another S52, I'd use a standard (new) S54 pump, and set idle to 1000 or 1100 or such. Or, if you want to go all in, achilles upgraded s54 pump kit.

[Bd411]

Thanks for the input. Does the Achilles upgrade do anything to help the oil volume at idle or is that why you suggest upping the idle? I didn’t plan on spending the money on another tune until I decided to do cams in the car

[aeronaut]

I don't believe the Achilles upgrade uses the higher pressure pump, but I'd give Achilles a call. They are awesome to talk to. But yea, that's why I suggested higher idle rpm.
Achilles says their modified pump uses a Double-D keyed shaft, this addresses the failure mode I had (twice).

[325isBimmer]

I have been running the VAC upgraded pump on my setup. I bought a brand new pump and had it modified and it has been working perfect for my last 5 track events. I do idle at 1000rpm though so I haven't had any idle oil pressure issues.

-Mike

[aeronaut]

I have been running the VAC upgraded pump on my setup. I bought a brand new pump and had it modified and it has been working perfect for my last 5 track events. I do idle at 1000rpm though so I haven't had any idle oil pressure issues.

-Mike

Hopefully you won't have a problem, quite a few people are happy with them. But Achilles puts 2 woodruff keys in there for a reason I guess.
It took mine about 15 days to break the first time, and less the 2nd time. It was on the transfer side of the pump, so I didn't loose oil pressure except in high G turns, basically, back to a single pump like the S52 pump.

VACpump.jpg

[Steage]

Hopefully you won't have a problem, quite a few people are happy with them. But Achilles puts 2 woodruff keys in there for a reason I guess.
It took mine about 15 days to break the first time, and less the 2nd time. It was on the transfer side of the pump, so I didn't loose oil pressure except in high G turns, basically, back to a single pump like the S52 pump.

VACpump.jpg

I remember you posting about this once, I guess I missed the second time or any more discussion about it. Is this a result of the VAC high flow changes? Or are all S54 oil pumps susceptible to this?

As someone who has been running an S54 oil pan in my S52 for years now how concerned should I be? Is it a high RPM/higher horsepower problem?

[aeronaut]

I remember you posting about this once, I guess I missed the second time or any more discussion about it. Is this a result of the VAC high flow changes? Or are all S54 oil pumps susceptible to this?

As someone who has been running an S54 oil pan in my S52 for years now how concerned should I be? Is it a high RPM/higher horsepower problem?

I wish I had more info, all I can do is share my use case. S52, redline 7200, S54 pan w/VAC modified pump. It spent it's fair time between 5500-7200rpm.
My guess is something was out of spec inside the pump. I do find it interesting that the Achilles modified pump has 2 woodruff keys, a discussion with them on what they've seen might be enlightening.

When it failed the second time, I just installed an accusump and ran it. When I pulled the engine at the end of the year I knew what'd I'd find and I was right, another sheared woodruff key.

Big picture, if you can set your idle at 1000-1200, I don't see a need for the VAC pump, even if it never failed for anyone.
It sounds like the VAC pump works great for most folks, if installed and working for a while, I wouldn't worry about it. My pesonal experience with VAC on several issues is pretty crappy.

[325isBimmer]

Hopefully you won't have a problem, quite a few people are happy with them. But Achilles puts 2 woodruff keys in there for a reason I guess.
It took mine about 15 days to break the first time, and less the 2nd time. It was on the transfer side of the pump, so I didn't loose oil pressure except in high G turns, basically, back to a single pump like the S52 pump.

VACpump.jpg

I hope mine doesn't have a issue, I think I might add a accusump for for protection also. I got a AIM MXG dash so I am going to set warnings for oil pressure at specific RPM ranges to let me know if it is dropping. I was running into oil starvation issues with just the S52 pump and since I switched to the S54 pump I have had no issues.

-Mike

[aeronaut]

I hope mine doesn't have a issue, I think I might add a accusump for for protection also. I got a AIM MXG dash so I am going to set warnings for oil pressure at specific RPM ranges to let me know if it is dropping. I was running into oil starvation issues with just the S52 pump and since I switched to the S54 pump I have had no issues.

-Mike

OP warning is exactly what I did on my AiM, I did a math channel in the device OPwarn=(OP*100)/rpm, or such, and trigger on 0.8 or less, and then some end cases for extreme OP loss. I considered using the AIM PDM to shut the engine off if OP<5 and rpm>1000 for more than 1sec, but whew that's a commitment.
Sumpy is good insurance (for 3-4 sec anyway), but nothing is free, it slighly delays OP increase under accel.