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

[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.

[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...

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.

[Rick_L]

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