Anyone use a pre oiling system?

I am just installing one in my own car (400i). With theses ling engines, the journals at the end of the crankshaft do wear fast. Not finalised yet, but here are the parts I've collected so far:
1) Marco HD pump (they are manufacturing the Turbowerx pump)
2) Check Valve with Viton seals
3) 2 Tee connector
4) custom made plunger

The pump is triggered by a relay that is engaged when the kjet sensor detects no airflow (i.e engine off)
The pump pushes oil through a check valve the feeds the Tee connector (when engine runs, the check valve prevents oil from getting back through the electric pump)
The Tee connector is placed between the oil cooler and the engine (i.e before the oil filters)
The "plunger" is extending the return line of the oil (mechanical) pump relief valve which allows me to pump oil from this line

Here is a small sketch (I've finally decided to place the Tee after the radiator not before as illustrated).
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There is one ready made kit for the Testarossa. Does seem to use a re-badged Marco pump.

https://gavarino.com/product/ferrari-testarossa-automatic-engine-pre-oil-system/

 

I have the oil bypass system on my '90 TR made by the same company that developed the pre-oiler. The owner's name is Todd and I believe he goes by Todd6363 here on F Chat. He developed the pre-oiler after the bypass system and I eventually will have one of those on my car also. Everything in the bypass kit I bought was the highest quality, nothing was cheaply made. I know he has everything his company develops on his own personal cars, and I've also visited the multi-million dollar collection that he is caretaker of, which includes 10-15 vintage Ferraris, so I trust the quality of his work. I've been working on cars for 58 years and am a Mechanical Engineer, so I know quality and function when I see it, and that is the way I maintain all of my cars.

 

Gavarino does provide kits for other cars so you could give him a call?

Do not know about your cars but as far as my engine is concerned, the mechanical oil pumps does include two safety design: one oil bypass (that regulates pump pressure) and one oil pressure relief valve (meant to reduce oil flow when engine is too cold / oil too thick). Then you have the bypasses within the oil filters.

I doubt one could 'tap' the filter bypasses. The other two devices are basically routing oil away from the engine but the paths are different : The relief valve returns excess oil to the oil sump, while the bypass sends oil back to the input of the pump (shorter path). I prefer to tap the valve pressure relief plumbing as pressure is much lower here. Also under normal operating temperature, there should be no flow here. Your mileage may vary, at least the Gavarino kits makes it a no-brainer.

Should you design your own solution, just be careful with pump selection: some Chinese knock-offs do (reportedly) have poorly cut gears that will spread tiny brass particles in the oil system. Most of the "good" pumps are made by Marco in Italy and given the price difference with the knock offs, no point in taking any risk. I've decided to design my own solution as I would rather have a small (slow), heavy duty pump rather than a high flow bulky pump, so I directly ordered the pump suited to my need. It takes a bit of time to prime the system though.

 

Please note that you car does have a very distinct oil filter layout, so it is far less likely to be fully dry like the classic V12. Also it does not have a timing chain that will stretch when dry. Not sure the pre-oiler will provide so much benefits in your case.

 

I did buy the Gavarino Engineering oil bypass system. I drive 1-3,000 miles/year, with track events over the 27 years I've owned the car. Given the price of the system vs. the price of an engine rebuild, I thought it was a wise investment. I've had problems occasionally with the UFI filters, so i wanted the extra protection.

 

Here again I do not have any first hand knowledge on the vintage ferraris, but this type of bypass was used in the earlier colombo engines, on the later V12 and early flat 12, you would have two identical filters (no filtering on the pump bypass). On the later flat 12, only one filter.

The filter bypass is another feature: once there is too much pressure in the filter, there is a more or less sophisticated spring mechanism that lets the filtering element slide within the filter body so as to let escape some oil directly without filtration.

Back to the subject, on the Colombo (vintage or later variants) it is easy to "tap" the oil lines as the oil plumbing is "outside' the engine block. It seems however that on the Testarossa the whole system is housed within the sump. So connecting an external pre-oiler is not going to be as easy as on the earlier car. I can understand why the Gavarino kit is so expensive...

As said previously, your car does have a filter located on the lower side of the engine (so it does not get dry as easily) and you do not have a long timing chain, so I doubt you do really need a pre-oiler. You could just make it do with a high quality thin synthetic oil and call it a day. If you really want to play it safe you can repurpose a garden sprayer in order to pressurise your system after winter storage: https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/starting-the-360-concerned-about-oil-pressure.577926/#post-146039009

 

so, Image Unavailable, Please Login As we are a fan of engine pre-oilers and have used them on other than Ferrari's w/ great success.
we are curious how your application of the pre-oiler system you refer to has worked?
In particular we are interested in using one ( the Moroso pressurized type on our F430 ) and brought up the topic in a recent thread -we were unaware of this thread and it seems to be about older Ferrari's ( and quite positive ! ) someone, as some do, had cited this as proof the idea had been discussed and discarded clearly far from it !
This has inspired me as now I am thinking a simple and elegant solution to pre-oiling is to use an electric pump to pre-circulate oil before starting
now I find that somewhat less satisfying than the automatic emergency oil that can be supplied in case of pressure insufficiency of the Moroso , et all similar units LOL
your comments and suggestions would be gratefully accepted ! thx

 

As I've mentioned in the other thread, on the older colombo engines, here are the requirements in terms of volume : 2x1l for the filters, 2l for the oil cooler, 1.5l more for the oil hoses, then an additional 1~2 litres for the engine itself. This is a worst case scenario for a "dry engine" (eg: car that has sat for long in winter with thin oil and not perfectly sealed filter valve).

Pump driven products mentioned in this thread would not have any issue with such a volume, but the regular accumulator systems would need to be quite bulky in order to meet this requirement. I did contemplate the moroso product, but based on the above requirement I guess-estimated that it would take two accumulators in order to prime my engine. I've preferred to implement a system similar to Gavarino's solution as I do not have enough room in my engine bay for two accumulators.

I would still be interested in pictures of actual implementation.

 

Thank you you for your response ! i am very interested in the Gavarino engineering pre-oiler system and their oil filter bypass system ! It seems it is very close to the one i mentioned !
I have written to them and will share the response .
they have systems for most of all the older ferrari's up to the 360 ! Image Unavailable, Please Login
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