Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to get people’s thoughts on oil pan baffles. Currently rebuilding my 1.6 with a turbo and considering putting in a Mazda Motorsports style oil pan baffle. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with these? Thanks.

 

When I rebuilt my engine I didn't add any baffling, but wish I would have. I've seen some pretty low oil pressure (15-20 PSI at ~3k RPM on 5W-40) in tighter hairpins at one of our local "tracks", which is a small oval with a very tight infield.

I'm not sure how much the baffling would help, and there could be other factors at play in my case, but If I was building another engine that expected to see much track/autocross I'd add some type of baffle.

 

Since my 1.6 is out of the car and being rebuilt at this very moment, I researched oil pan baffles and bought one of these to put in:
https://www.circuit-sports.com/produ...9b80ca43&_ss=r
Pretty much everything I read said it was a Very Good Idea to have one.

From what I understand, between the crossmember under the engine and the fact that Mazda didn't design the oil pans to be removed anyway, it's impossible to put one in unless the engine is removed so I'd take advantage of the opportunity.

 

I have a Kaze-Spec. Would 10000% put one in.

 

I've been doing a lot of research on these lately since my engine is out. Emilio and Supermiata highly recommend them.

Oil pan baffle - Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats.

Extra baffling for the oil pan. - Miata Turbo Forum - Boost cars, acquire cats.

I bought the DCBE vertical wall/viton flap style of baffle. It is super nicely finished, but I was a bit disappointed to find a substantial gap at the bottom between the baffle wall and the oil pan floor. Then I looked around at other vendors offerings and found that they all seem to be this way.



In my research I found one person say that these vertical wall Viton flap trap door baffles still gave him pressure dips, so I went ahead and ordered a Speedsage Engineering copy of the Mazda Motorsports/JPM horizontal baffle plate. I have not yet received it so I can't comment on the quality. Assuming it is just as tight of a fit to the pan as the Mazda Motorsports / Jesse Prather baffle, I prefer the rounded edges of the former shown below over the sharp corners of the MM/JPM unit.



I ended up basically recreating the Circuit Sports baffle setup, except from more niche vendors. The Circuit Sports unit may be the best option for "belt and suspenders" one stop shopping. I'm not a fan of the small bent tabs it has though. I'm still happy with the finish quality of the DCBE baffle and have no regrets about purchasing it. I do wish there was an offering that had a tighter fit to the pan though.

As a reminder, if the $32 shipped to your door price of the Sagespeed is too high, pretty much all of these horizontal plate style of baffles can be made at home with CAD (Cardboard Aided Design).

 

I've got nothing much more to add, but I recently installed the circuit sport baffle in my vvt swap NA. From the looks of it, it's definitely gotta be better than than just the oem top plate. Id prefer to have actual hinged doors instead of the viton flaps but oh well. It's also wayyy overkill for my application (99.9% street) but I lost the oem baffle plate and said screw it lol.

 

Thanks everyone for the great replies. My car will not be seeing any kind of heavy track use, most likely just an occasional track day here and there so I’ve decided to go with the Mazda Motorsports style baffle. There’s someone local to me who laser cuts them so will be picking one up this week before the engine goes back together. Thanks again!