Once you see the flat plate on the bottom of an engine, the mind boggles at
the possibilities. You only need the "through the plate fitting" to feed the
stock pump oil to pressurize. You only need to collect expended oil from near
the center of this flat plate and remove it to a storage container below the
plate. Stock pump performance can be had by maintaining the stock suction lift
to the pump. Or, the oil level in the new storage system need only equal in
height to the stock oil level.
So if room is needed directly below the engine, much can be made available
with various pan designs that all start as a flat plate.
An oil storage tank might be a tall aluminum tube either attached to the
engine or fixed to the engine mount or even the fire wall. The taller the
container the more foam will be removed from the oil. Ed Anderson's looks like a
brief case along one side of his engine. Works great. Look at the ball looking
thing on every Continental engine. Or, Lycoming's with intake air being heated
(and oil being cooled) with tubes through the sump.
Lynn E. Hanover