A windage tray serves a couple purposes, neither of which are very
important (IMHO) for street use:
- Acts as a baffle to keep all the oil from sloshing to 1 side of the
engine when you go around a corner, thus leaving the oil pump pickup
hanging in the air and leaving the engine without oil pressure.
- Shield the oil from the wind (hence the term "windage tray")
generated by the crank. You basically just want the oil to just sit in
the bottom of the motor. If it gets sloshed or blown around and gets
into the crank this saps horsepower and churns the oil.
I personally don't think one is really necessary on a Fiero, unless
you're seriously racing it. I've had the oppurtunity to ride in my car
with someone else driving on both an autocross course and a 2.25 mile
roadrace course. I was able to watch the guages in sustained high g
cornering both directions, and the oil pressure guage never moved.
From Doug Chase
Engines with shallow oil pans (like the stock
LT1 [and the Quad-4])
have windage trays, even for street use.
Not much use for one in a transverse mounted engine...
From: Curt Martin
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