bk12

I think that picture is of the stock baffle in his 3.6L from 02 C4s and the X51 baffle. I looked at the PET diagram of the 997 baffle, and it looks to be the same as the stock 3.6L baffle in the OP car.

Making the call based on the fact that the X51 baffle doesn't really have walls on the "front and back", just on the sides. If you look at the stock baffle in OP, you can see there is some wall on each of the four sides. The PET shot of the stock 997 baffle has the same walls as the stock part as near as I can tell....but it definitely looks to be different than the X51 unit as far as the "front and back" walls are concerned.

TheSpeedDemon

Well I am just 'baffled' now

Sorry just trying to make light of a very interesting discussion that has implications for those of us monitoring this thread that are going to be tracking there car with a stock oil pan.

It is very intresting and I do not think there is one clear winner here IMHO...but I have learned a lot, so thanks

Ray S

Actually if you look closely you'll see the pics come from an '02 (3.6).

Ray S

That would be great. Thanks Chad!!

Loren

Any replacement tray today should be the 997.107.243.00 tray (unless your dealer is using old stock). It is hard to say what tray is in what car because there was not a TSB for the changeover (that I am aware of). Perhaps it was deemed as "not that important" by Porsche.

Loren

As I said in the previous post there was no published cut-in date so it is likely impossible to tell without dropping the pan.
Also, as I said previously this windage tray is not likely to help a 3.4 liter engine much (see my previous post here for why).

redridge

Been going through some of the comments here and here are my thoughts on the stock vs x51 oil pan.

I bought the x51 pan a year ago and started to look at the stock and x51 pan closely... what I noticed is that you cant simply look at the two pan by itself and start comparing their design without knowing the area it covers. The x51design is very clever that you must closely look how it marries with the engine casing.



But first the stock pan.
The stock pan uses it own 4 walls to encase the oil close to the pickup (which is right in the middle of the pan). The oil pickup suspends about 1/4 inch above the pan.
The return oil (from both cylinder banks) pours oil back to the left and right side of the baffle walls. This leads to why there are 3 square holes on each side of the baffles, they are meant to overflow the oil into the baffles walls. The rubber baffle is light enough for the oil to open the rubber gate and flow into the baffle wall with only slight weight of the oil. The problem with the stock setup is that the oil can travel from one side of the pan to the other without going through the 3 holes (which fills up the well of the oil pickup)... so with this setup the pan is sectioned only in two parts (the inner well where the oil pickup is located and the left/right side of the pan). The left and right side of the pan are essentially the same space since the oil can travel from one side to the other while cornering cornering. But off course some oil will flow in the 3 square holes, but not all of the oil.



X51 pan
The x51 pan is a huge difference with greater advantages from the stock because the baffle walls are gasketed against the wall of the engine casing... what this does is effectively is it create 3 sections of the pan (the left oil return, the center pick-up and the, the right oil return). Since the gaskets on the baffle plates creates 3 seperate sections, the oil can not travel from one side of the pan to the other without going through the 3 square holes... this is good because this fills up the center section where the oil pickup is located, while oil is entering one side of the baffel, the other side of the baffle flap is closed to retain the oil in the center section... more oil for the motor on cornering.
Another design aspect of the x51 is the normally open gate (the rubber flap). This is different from the normally closed flap on the stock pan. Though the stock flap is relativley light... it still needs some volume of oil to open the flap, while the x51 flap is normally open and oil can freelly go through the sections of the pan while driving on straights.




I debated on the hinge mod... some of my thoughts on it are... why did Porsche designed the x51 pan flap to be normally open? Because this is the best way for oil to fill the oil pick-up section freely., The oil would just overflow into that section. On the other hand the hinge setup needs cornering or the weight of the oil to open the normally closed hinged flap.... in the real world, im thinking this is ok, but im my opinion Porsche got it right with their designing the normally open flap. Maybe the hinge mod should be normally open with a very light spring?...hhhmmmmmm, or just do what porsche did, the rubber flap works great. Though I wont debate that if the car is not driven for years, I can see it dry rotting.

Thoughts on the B&K mod... I also weighed the pros and cons of the kit and Im not loving it at all. Its great that it holds more oil by lowering the pan but from what I remember the kit is not lowering the oil pickup either. What good is it to lower the pan to hold more oil if the oil pickup cant suck the oil up because it now sits higher... plus its still a 2 section pan... the oil can easily go from one side of the pan without going through oil pickup section, again not good. Also in since it sits lower, it has more chance on bottoming out...

So, I put the x51 pan as is and feel that Porsche did a great job designing the integrated "dry sump"... it is no wonder why they kept the design in their current line up. I usually dont do this but, sorry for such a long post.

Ray S

Nice post

Is the pan in your pic from a 3.4 or a 3.6?

redridge

yeah its from a 3.4. From what I understand, the x51 also fits the boxster...

Ray S

Good to know. Thanks!!

4-large

Redridge,
That was a really good wright up,
I thought it was a sealing issue, but with your wright up I see that with it sealing well you always have 2/3 of oil one side and center so it is also a volume builder as well..

Thanks
Jerry
PS I have the stock pan if somebody wants it let me know....

Paul 996

All stop.. I received 3 of these with the Part # 997.107.243.00 and they are not the metal ones like the x51 version that we want.. They are the black plastic version. Porsche may no longer be making the x51 version at all since the 997 # is the only one you can order. Doubly unlucky for me 2 of the 3 were also broken during shipment. Arggh.

Stay tuned. As soon I find out the correct # if there is one I will post it.

jasper

Are they identical to the plastic versions that we saw earlier in this thread ? Can you post pictures of the one that wasn't broken?

Paul 996

Jasper it is nearly 99 percent identical. I studied it on my desk while looking at the picture and there is one slight difference in a curve. Same outside dimensions which is the major problem as the x51 version holds a lot more volume of oil vs the black plastic version(s).

I am afraid that every parts place I talk to is coming up with the same research that this cannot be purchased on its own and you must get the x51 baffles with a new oil pan (identical to the one you already have).

Chads996

If metal ones are wanted - hang tight folks. J3 Motorsport is fabricating my design. More news tomorrow.

C.