A Diaper for my Baby, Containing the oil slick Options

[Spoke]

A while back, my father-in-law and I had a discussion about oil leaking from his 78 Chrysler Cordoba. To contain the oil in the garage, he used a cooking tray with newspaper inside to keep the oil off of the floor. When I asked him if he were going to fix the leak, his response was "why fix it and pay $100-$1000 depending on the repair when it costs me 1 quart of oil every other month? Besides, look at the oil in a parking lot. All cars leak oil"

So for my leaking 914, I just use cardboard in the garage, works good. However, the 914's been banned from my friend's driveway since he doesn't like the oil spots. I thought about carrying some cardboard in the trunk and whipping it out when parked on driveways. Then I thought about my father-in-law and decided to carry a cooking tray with me. Not in the trunk but under the car. So with a couple of hose clamps and one of my wife's cooking trays, I now have a drip-less 914. It still leaks but not on the driveway. The next step is to add an old towel on the inside to absorb the oil, and a cookie cooling rack to keep the towel in place. Some day I may rebuild the engine, but for now, I'll just drive it.

Spoke

[Spoke]

Hey, thanks for the feedback about the hot environment. I haven't done the rag thing yet and maybe I won't. It's just a plain pan right now. Not parking in friend's driveways is an option but not very practical or desirable. Its been about 10 days since I've hung the pan and there's just a bit of oil in it. Maybe a cleanout every other week is in order.

I haven't made the commitment to overhaul the engine to fix the leaks. Being a 1.7L, I'm not even sure I want to keep the engine. Then on the other hand, I'm very reluctant to dump tons of cash into a car which I've heard won't increase much in value even with a bunch of upgrades.

I'm curious about the cooling comments. The pan is a good 3-4 inches off of the oil pan, and the fins on the oil pan are not that deep, indicating that the amount of cooling from those fins is of a second order effect. Also, without forced airflow, the fins are not meant to provide cooling when at rest or at low speeds. The only cooling for the engine at rest or slow speeds is the forced air over the cylinders and oil cooler. Am I really compromising the cooling of the engine with this pan?

Spoke