How much farther does that hang down vs stock m10? Did you see if there is another mazda oil pickup that is shorter? 

It only hangs down about an inch more than the BMW pan.  I did that to get a bit more capacity and I don't think it's in any danger of getting hit.

I looked all over for a front sump pan for a Duratec but couldn't find anything that would work.  Believe me, I didn't want to have to build this!

I just stumbled upon your build... too bad pics are down on the site right now, I'm very excited to see what you done thus far... I'm a big fan of the duratec, great motor. I was very close to building a ford cortina with a 2.5 duratec before I got into 2002's! 

Did you look into the ranger duratec pan? It's a front sump, maybe too big to clear steering and subframe? 

I have a Ranger pan and unfortunately it is a rear sump.  I looked quite a bit for a front sump but could never find one, if you know of one I'd love to hear about it!

Just started it for the first time today.  I have some issues to work out, mainly exhaust, but it runs great!  Very excited!

Man, I could have sworn the ranger pan was front sump, I guess I had it backwards... it's been awhile. Are you familiar with burton power or retro ford in the UK? They both have aftermarket wet sumps for rwd duratec swaps, I'm pretty sure they are front sump, if I'm wrong I did find a nice dry sump kit for under $1k. I'll dig up my old cortina parts list... what did you do for air/fuel delivery and engine management? Oem throttle body and ecu?

Duratec dry sump pan with internal pump http://www.raceline.co.uk/products/part_section.asp?SectionID=23&CategoryID=1

For fuel delivery I used a Miata intake manifold and Megasquirt, which I was running on the M10 engine before it died.

I'll get some pictures up soon.

That dry sump is interesting, but for the price I'd rather make my own pan.  It wasn't that bad, it only took a weekend basically.