What is windage and what are the differences between an oil baffle versus a windage tray versus a crank scraper?
Windage: During normal engine operation a significant amount of oil adheres to or becomes entrained in a cloud surrounding the spinning bottom end. This oil eats up horsepower your engine is making by increasing the rotating mass and also creating parasitic drag. Windage is actually a highly complex set of phenomena. Windage effects increase with: vehicle movement; rpm; stroke; blow-by (atmospheric pressure); bearing clearance; component surface characteristics, oil squirters (there are many types); draining oil from the head, cams, balance shafts and other internal components as well as oil returns from turbos, air-oil separators and catch can drains. Closely related topics are those of pumping losses, crank case ventilation, NVH (noise, vibration, harshness), oil aeration and the cooling function that is required of oil in addition to its lubrication tasks. There are a number of different types and degrees of oil aeration starting from the baseline solubility of air in a given oil fo
Windage: During normal engine operation a significant amount of oil adheres to or becomes entrained in a cloud surrounding the spinning bottom end. The oil droplets are drawn into this cloud by the phenomenon known as the Tea Leaf Paradox, first described by Albert Einstein in 1926. This oil eats up horsepower your engine is making by increasing the rotating mass and also creating parasitic drag. Windage is actually a highly complex set of phenomena. Windage effects increase with: vehicle movement; rpm; stroke; blow-by (atmospheric pressure); bearing clearance; component surface characteristics, oil squirters (there are many types); draining oil from the head, cams, balance shafts and other internal components as well as oil returns from turbos, air-oil separators and catch can drains. Closely related topics are those of pumping losses, crank case ventilation, NVH (noise, vibration, harshness), oil aeration and the cooling function that is required of oil in addition to its lubrication
