JP4114413B2 - Oil pan lubricating oil circulation structure - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a circulating structure for engine lubricating oil, and more particularly to a lubricating oil circulating structure for an oil pan having a plurality of oil tank portions.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In an oil pan that is divided into a left chamber and a right chamber, the tip of the suction oil passage that sucks lubricating oil branches to the left and right, and the branch tip faces the lower part of the left and right chambers of the oil pan. When the tip of the suction oil passage is exposed to the air due to the inclination of the left chamber, by installing an oil strainer equipped with a check valve at the tip to prevent the lubricating oil passage from being filled with air, A method of mixing and circulating the lubricating oil in the chamber is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-230411.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above conventional method, a check valve must be arranged at the tip of each strainer, and when there is a deterioration or failure of the check valve, only the lubricating oil in a specific tank is circulated. There is a problem that oil deterioration is accelerated.
[0004]
The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and aims to circulate a large amount of lubricating oil without stagnation and prevent deterioration of the oil by an inexpensive method.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention includes an oil pan having a plurality of tank portions, an oil pump for circulating lubricating oil from the oil pan to the engine, an oil strainer that communicates the oil pump with any one of the tank portions, In a lubricating oil circulation structure including a communication pipe communicating between tank portions, a bypass pipe is provided that connects the oil strainer and the communication pipe and has a minimum diameter smaller than that of the oil strainer.
[0006]
[Action / Effect]
According to the present invention, even if the communication pipe is filled with air, the filled air is sucked up by the oil pump through the bypass pipe and removed from the communication pipe, so that the lubricating oil is circulated through the communication pipe in the oil pan. There is no delay.
[0007]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0008]
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0009]
1 is an oil pan composed of a plurality of tank parts, 3 is an oil pump that sucks lubricating oil from the oil pan 1 and supplies it to an engine (not shown), 2 is a strainer that communicates the tank part 1a and the oil pump 3, 6 Is a bypass pipe communicating the communication pipe 4 and the oil strainer 2.
[0010]
The oil pan 1 is divided into a main tank portion 1a and a sub tank portion 1b by a bulging space 5 projecting upward, and the main tank portion 1a and the sub tank portion 1b communicate with each other through a communication pipe 4. Filters 11a, 12a, and 7a for removing foreign matters in the lubricating oil are disposed at both ends 11 and 12 of the communication pipe 4 and the tip 7 of the oil strainer 2 on the oil pan 1 side.
[0011]
Although both ends 11 and 12 of the communication pipe 4 are submerged below the oil level, the middle is located above the oil level, and the bypass pipe 6 is connected to the vertical uppermost part 4a (uppermost part 4a) of the communication pipe 4. One end 6b is connected. The other end 6 a of the bypass pipe 6 is connected to an arbitrary part of the oil strainer 2.
[0012]
The minimum cross-sectional area of the bypass pipe 6 is made smaller than the minimum cross-sectional area of the oil strainer 2 and the minimum cross-sectional area of the communication pipe 4.
[0013]
As the viscosity of the lubricating oil increases, the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the oil strainer 2, the communication pipe 4 and the bypass pipe 6 is reduced. However, the cross-sectional area of the bypass pipe 6 is less than 1/25 of the cross-sectional area of the oil strainer 2. It is desirable to be. Specifically, in this embodiment, in the case of an all-round pipe, the oil strainer 2 is φ16-22, the communication pipe 4 is φ10-20, and the bypass pipe 6 is φ2-3.
[0014]
Next, the operation will be described.
[0015]
Lubricating oil is sucked up from an oil strainer 2 installed in the main tank 1a, supplied to each part of the engine (not shown) by a pump 3, and returns to the main tank 1a and the sub tank 1b of the oil pan 1 again. .
[0016]
Further, when the lubricating oil is sucked up by the oil pump 3 in the main tank portion 1a, the oil level of the main tank portion 1a is lowered and becomes lower than the oil level of the sub tank portion 1b. Due to the pressure difference caused by the difference in oil level, the lubricating oil in the sub tank portion 1 b is supplied to the main tank portion 1 a through the communication pipe 4.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 2, when the lubricating oil is biased in the oil pan 1 due to the vibration of the engine or the inclination of the vehicle body and the end 11 or 12 of the communication pipe 4 is exposed to the air, the communication pipe 4 is filled with air. If the bypass pipe 6 is not provided, the lubricating oil does not flow through the communication pipe 4 even if there is a height difference between the oil levels of the main tank portion 1a and the sub tank portion 1b.
[0018]
However, in this embodiment, by providing the bypass pipe 6 that communicates the communication pipe 4 and the oil strainer 2, the filled air is sucked up by the oil pump 3 from the bypass pipe 6 via the oil strainer 2. Therefore, the circulation of the lubricating oil through the communication pipe 4 returns to the normal circulation shown in FIG.
[0019]
In normal circulation, the flow of the bypass pipe 6 is small because the pipe diameter is small and the resistance due to the viscosity of the lubricating oil is large, and the original circulation function by the communication pipe 4 is not impaired.
[0020]
As described above, the lubricating oil sucked up from the main tank portion 1a to the oil strainer 2 is not limited to the lubricating oil returned from the engine (not shown) to the main tank portion 1a but also the lubricating oil returned to the sub tank portion 1b. Since it is supplied to the main tank 1a via the pipe 4 and circulates again from the main tank 1a to the engine (not shown), only the lubricating oil returned to the main tank 1a is the engine (not shown). And the oil pan 1 can be circulated to prevent premature deterioration of the lubricating oil.
[0021]
By providing the communication pipe 4, it is possible to supply lubricating oil from a plurality of tank parts to the main tank part 1 a, which increases the number of tank parts and the degree of freedom of the shape of the oil pan 1, thereby increasing the lubricating oil capacity. It becomes possible. When the lubricating oil capacity is increased, it takes a long time for the lubricating oil, which has been circulated through the engine (not shown) and becomes high temperature, to return to the oil pan 1 and be put into the engine (not shown) again. Therefore, after the temperature in the oil pan 1 is sufficiently lowered, the oil is circulated again in the engine (not shown), thereby improving the oil temperature stability of the lubricating oil, preventing deterioration, and extending the lubricating oil replacement cycle. Is obtained.
[0022]
Since the bypass pipe 6 is joined to the uppermost part 4 a of the communication pipe 4, the air accumulated in the communication pipe 4 collects in the uppermost part 4 a, and is thus sucked into the oil strainer 2 via the bypass pipe 6. The air in 4 can be reliably removed.
[0023]
By making the cross-sectional area of the bypass pipe 6 smaller than the cross-sectional area of the oil strainer 2 and the cross-sectional area of the communication pipe 4, lubrication is sucked from the sub tank portion 1 b to the oil strainer 2 via the communication pipe 4 and the bypass pipe 6. Since the amount of oil is reduced, the lubricating oil in the sub tank portion 1b is supplied to the main tank portion 1a from the communication pipe 4, and is sucked up from the main tank portion 1a to the oil pump 3 via the oil strainer 2. Flow is maintained.
[0024]
A second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
[0025]
In this embodiment, it arrange | positions so that the bottom part 21 of the main tank part 1a may become the lowest position in the oil pan 1, and as for the communicating pipe 4, the main tank part side edge part 30 is lower than the subtank part side edge part 31. Place it further to be in position. Further, the drain plug 13 a is disposed at the lowest position 13 in the bottom portion 21.
[0026]
When the drain plug 13a is opened, the oil level of the main tank portion 1a is lowered, and lubricating oil is supplied from the sub tank portion 1b through the communication pipe 4. Since the bottom 22 of the sub tank 1b is located higher than the bottom 21 of the main tank 1a and the end 30 of the communication pipe 4 is located lower than the end 31, the sub tank 1b is emptied first. Become.
[0027]
Accordingly, it is not necessary to dispose a drain plug in the auxiliary tank portion 1b for the operation of removing the lubricating oil when replacing the lubricating oil, and only one drain plug 13a needs to be disposed in the main tank portion 1a. Will be better.
[0028]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a view showing the inside of an oil pan when the oil level is inclined.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a flow of air filled in a communication pipe.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Oil pan 1a Main tank part 1b Subtank part 2 Oil strainer 3 Oil pump 4 Communication pipe 4a Communication pipe uppermost part 5 Expansion space 6 Bypass pipe 6a Bypass pipe uppermost part 6b Bypass pipe lowest part 7 Oil strainer main tank side end Parts 7a, 11a, 12a filter 11 communication pipe sub tank part side end 12 communication pipe main tank part side end 13 main tank part lowest part 13a drain plug 21 main tank part bottom part 22 sub tank part bottom part

Claims (4)

An oil pan having a plurality of tank parts;
An oil pump for circulating lubricating oil from the oil pan to the engine;
An oil strainer communicating the oil pump with any one of the tank parts;
In the lubricating oil circulation structure composed of a communication pipe communicating between the tank parts,
A lubricating oil circulation structure for an oil pan, characterized in that a bypass pipe that connects the oil strainer and the communication pipe and has a minimum diameter smaller than that of the oil strainer is provided. 2. The lubricating oil circulation structure of an oil pan according to claim 1, wherein the bypass pipe is disposed so as to communicate with the oil strainer from a vertical uppermost portion of the communication pipe. The lubricating oil circulation structure for an oil pan according to claim 1, wherein a minimum diameter of the bypass pipe is smaller than a diameter of the communication pipe. The oil pan is composed of a main tank part and a sub tank part, the bottom part of the main tank part is lower than the bottom part of the sub tank part, and the end part on the main tank part side of the communication pipe is from the end part on the sub tank part side. The lubricating oil circulation structure for an oil pan according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the drain plug is installed at a lower position and a drain plug is installed at the lowest position of the bottom of the main tank portion.

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