I think that a well-designed windage tray definitely has a real benefit in a wet-sump car engine when the car is in actual use. There's a reason why car manufacturers create these complex and expensive-to-manufacture trays. They aren't doing it for fun.bigblockmopar wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:08 pmHow about maybe that windage trays on modern days engine are installed closer to the crankshaft than on older engines? Or larger internal block webbing? Providing less room for air displacement/movement between cylinders.
Another thought; how about the thicker oils used in the older engines would show more benefit with a tray in draining/keeping the oil away from the crank than on modern engines with thinner oils.
Then again, why would modern manufacturers spend the resources to design and fabricate something that will limit its engine power.
There must be more (economy/efficiency?) benefits at the lower rpms that offset a little loss in the upper ranges I would think.
The external g-forces cause the oil to splash out of the sump. The windage tray acts as physical blocker keeping most of the oil out of the rotating crankshaft. You really don't want the oil to surge into the crankshaft, say, when braking into a corner.
The V8 windage trays also usually have devices that shield the head oil drains from piston pumping pulses that disturb oil drain. It's not an effect that one will notice in a 9-second dyno pull, but run the car hard on a track or twisty road for an hour and there's a difference in oil drain and oil aeration.
The block webs and skirts coming further down in newer engines are definitely another issue. The modern, very stiff blocks with main girdles instead of main caps and deep skirts dramatically reduce the area that is naturally available for piston pumping pulses to communicate between bays. In fact, the designed now usually accept the fact that some fraction of the bay to bay pumping gas flows are going to communicate in the valve cover cavities, via the head oil drains. All of this makes it harder to design a windage tray that doesn't increase crankcase pumping losses and reduce power. These modern engines need big breathing holes in the main webs and in the windage tray.
My opinion (not a fact) that modern V8's get a real and meaningful reliability benefit from well-designed windage trays in actual use and possibly a real and meaningful power benefit in actual use by keeping the oil from sloshing into the crankshaft because of the external g forces. My opinion is that most of those well designed trays aren't helping and may be slightly hurting power when the power is measured using a short pull on a stationary dyno.