Any one running a 7 quart oil pan....

[Run-em]

on the street with a SBC engine? If so whose did you use? Any problems with installation and/or clearance issues?

[Rick_L]

Why do you think you need a 7 quart pan?

If your car is lowered, you don't want a deep pan. There are quite a few good pans out there that aren't excessively deep.

[Run-em]

Just always felt that the larger pans could be better for engine life...Mercedes uses 2 gallon plus the filter oil pans on even their 4 cylinder engines to good advantage....a maintained Benz motor will live 500,000 miles easily.

Back in the Ford flathead days, Ford found that just using an oil filter cut down on engine wear over 60%. Adding one extra quart capacity to the pan added 20% or more to engine life. Ya gotta remember that Ford Flathead engine life was about 40,000 miles at the start of WWII. All engine manufacturers really scrambled to get engines to last longer for the war effort. I was able to read a bunch of those engineering reports at one time. Guess I have been tainted by those reports since.

[Rick_L]

I'm not trying to talk you out of it, just trying to guide you to the right decision. You don't want a gasser pan unless you are building one. There's pans out there with bat wings and mini bat wings for instance. 50 years ago, the 62 Corvette pan that came on the 340 and 360 hp engines was 5 quart capacity (+1 quart for the filter) and would fit a 55-57, not have clearance issues and didn't hang low. That's the kind of pan you need. There are Moroso and Milodon pans that do this.

[chevynut]

I don't see how you can correlate adding an oil filter to a larger oil pan. I also don't see how adding volume does anything, except maybe cool the engine better. But if your cooling system is good, that shouldn't really matter. All the oil goes through the filter, so it all gets cleaned. What's the theory behind more volume increasing engine life?

[Run-em]

Don't know the theory. Read the results long ago. Do understand dilution....as applied to pharmacy.

[chevynut]

I think the only benefit of a large capacity oilpan is in racing, where high RPM use keeps a lot of oil up inside the engine, and risks running the pan dry. I just don't see a benefit for street use. It just costs more to fill it. :)

[Rick_L]

Your comment about "oil in top end" and "pumping the pan dry" is a really old myth that has been debunked many times.

You can't even do that with "high volume" pumps. Just the same, high volume pumps are for the most part unnecessary. Remember two things: 1. The oil pump flows more oil the faster it turns, so high rpm engines are self compensating in this regard. 2. Once the pump's relief valve opens (because the pressure setting has been reached), the flow just dumps through the relief valve. It doesn't make it to the top end, not even the lower end.

I don't see that more oil has a whole lot to do with temperature, except in drag racing where the full power run is short, and more oil takes longer to increase temperature. On anything else it's just how long it takes to get to a steady temperature. There's almost no heat transfer from the pan walls to the surrounding air. As a minimum, airflow is needed for that.

The only other thing about more oil capacity is that it takes longer to contaminate and break down the oil. It might make more sense to just change the oil more often. You can buy a lot of oil for what a fancy pan costs, especially if it's a car that doesn't rack up a lot of miles.

[Run-em]

Don't believe in the super duper trick of the week oil pumps. A blueprinted stocker that has smoothed internal passages will do nicely, thank you. However, there is a critical concentration juncture before a chemical really starts off, and that is where volume comes into play. Might just run a remote oil filter system with two oil filters -- that would increase volume & filtering ability.

[567chevys]

Here is what I used for my super Gas Camaro , its a remote oil filter bolts on where the filter goes on the block , I used a Freightliner oil filter for more Oil

[smooth 56]

Your comment about "oil in top end" and "pumping the pan dry" is a really old myth that has been debunked many times.

You can't even do that with "high volume" pumps. Just the same, high volume pumps are for the most part unnecessary. Remember two things: 1. The oil pump flows more oil the faster it turns, so high rpm engines are self compensating in this regard. 2. Once the pump's relief valve opens (because the pressure setting has been reached), the flow just dumps through the relief valve. It doesn't make it to the top end, not even the lower end.

I don't see that more oil has a whole lot to do with temperature, except in drag racing where the full power run is short, and more oil takes longer to increase temperature. On anything else it's just how long it takes to get to a steady temperature. There's almost no heat transfer from the pan walls to the surrounding air. As a minimum, airflow is needed for that.

The only other thing about more oil capacity is that it takes longer to contaminate and break down the oil. It might make more sense to just change the oil more often. You can buy a lot of oil for what a fancy pan costs, especially if it's a car that doesn't rack up a lot of miles.

Rick_L been doin this a while hugh that was good to know allway's kind of wandered about that.So that mean's hihg voluim pump's are a myth?

[Run-em]

High volume oil pumps MAY have a place in some racing engines --where excessive engine clearances are determined to be a way to "free up" horsepower and torque. BUT the extra power required to turn those pumps is usually not factored into the situation. A good stock sized pump that has had its clearances paid attention to and one that has had internal flow impediments removed will flow more than enough oil. We spend endless hours flowing heads, etc. because an engine is "just an air pump" but neglect the aspects of fluids control inside an engine. We will buy extra capacity in oil & water pumping capacity without paying attention to "blueprinting" what is already there for efficiency.

[Rick_L]

I'll state my perspective on this.

I was a drag racer in the NHRA Comp deal for a long time. I usually ran in classes where dry sumps were not allowed. Although I quit that quite a few years ago, the technology used has not changed a lot.

We always ran a 5 or 6 quart Moroso, Hamburger, or Stef's pan with a passenger side kickout and either a solid or expanded metal windage tray. The sump was 7-1/4" deep which is not all that deep, this was all we could run because of ground clearance, either in a rear engine dragster chassis or a door car.

The oil pump was a stock volume Moroso pump. It's only mods from a stock one are a couple of ball milled grooves in the pum's bottom plate and in the top of the pump body. These reduce cavitation at high rpm. They also make the pump leak a bit at low speed. We always tried to run bearing clearances within the usual stock rebuild specs but on the high side.

All this would work the same on a performance street engine except that the side kickout and modified pump are unnecessary.

[Run-em]

Thanks Rick for the re-inforcements on my beliefs on the stock pumps and hardware.

[Geoff]

I mocked up my car with this pan and didn't have any issues.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j257/sg3000/56%20Project%20Progression/My383stroker.jpg

[Run-em]

Geoff,

You need to let me "store" that engine for you.....right under the hood on my 56 Nomad. Ya done good, guy!

[Rick_L]

Geoff, what pan is "this pan". It's one style I suggested earlier.

[Geoff]

Geoff,

You need to let me "store" that engine for you.....right under the hood on my 56 Nomad. Ya done good, guy!

Thanks for the kind offer to help me out and free up some space in my garage, I'm sure my wife would appreciate it, too.

But I hope to "store" it in my '56 150 soon... :rolleyes:

BTW, I'm glad somebody else appreciates the old school look I was going for. I got sooooo close to painting those
AFR heads red like the block, they just looked too modern to me.

[Geoff]

Geoff, what pan is "this pan". It's one style I suggested earlier.

Rick,

I can look up the model number but it's just the standard Milodon low profile stroker pan.
Here's a little better picture.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j257/sg3000/IMG_2372Large.jpg

[Rick_L]

I don't need it but run'em might.

[Run-em]

Thanks a bunch, Guys. Found that pan. Gonna give that a try. It it doesn't go, I'll e-bay it.