July 1 2014 update

With the help of several very qualified and helpful individuals, I was able to modify the oil system in order to allow me to turn the engine upright. The initial running attempt showed that too much oil stayed in the crankcase, the return line level was too high and the result was that oil was expelled via the breather and the labyrinth seal- and wherever else it could.

First, the oil tank had to be repositioned lower, to allow space for the newly planned return lines. This was actually fairly easy, just re-mounted it below the strut, instead of above. As a result the gascolator had to be lowered as well and fuel line re -routed. No big problem.   

Before

 

After

 

Second,  the oil pan had to be removed, which in itself required a special wrench and special prop hub puller. Courtesy Dave Watson of Splitpin Engineering.


Then the oil pan was modified to accept a quicker oil flow for drainage, plus the labyrinth seal return hole was drilled. The outlet was now at the lowest point in the oil pan and included a baffle shield. Thanks to Clark Seaborn from Alberta CA for that input. 

Drain -back holes

 

 

Labyrinth return hole

 

 Drain Flow holes

 

Outlet assembly

 

 

Baffle inside oil pan 

 

 Drain installed in lowest point in pan

 

 

Assembly required again the prop nut socket wrench. Also a special tool to center the labyrinth seal outer ring. Thanks to Mike Maniatis for sharing that tool. 

 Return line

 I plugged off the previous oil return line, which was the original breather when the engine ran in the inverted configuration. The new return line is still 1" ID, but at the lowest point of the oil  pan. 

 

Plugged off old line

 

Oil pickup with check valve on bottom as before

 

Pre-filter, primed, as before

 

Steel Line to pump, same as before

The breather now runs from the front to a separator, like I had it before, however I am running the vent hose to a temporary oil bottle, so I can monitor the quantity of blow-by, if any. So far none, after one hour running. The drain of the separator is temporarily run into another oil bottle, again, so that I can get a feel of how much is being separated. Looks like a few ounces after an hour of running. Many thanks to Michael Damiani of Golden Air Museum for help on that. 

Breather

 

Separator and vent

 

Check bottle f vent

 Temporary bottle for drain located below vent bottle, allows checking of blow-by amounts, this will later be connected to the brass fitting visible at the top of the oil tank. 

 

Finally everything back together, oil back in, primed, fueled. Run for an hour or more, at various throttle settings,  seems fine, oil stays surprisingly cool.