Truck oil pan
10-25-2007, 01:29 PM
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Truck oil pan Seeing how the truck oil pan is too low...has anyone tried cutting 2" out of the deep end, then welding the bottom back onto the pan? Any reason this can't be done?
10-25-2007, 02:08 PM
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10-25-2007, 03:29 PM
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1.) Warpage. The amount of heat required to weld aluminum is sufficient to warp the casting.
2.) Contamination. Alum has some porosity, and the alum soaks up some oil, since its an oilpan and all. That causes difficulty welding (inclusions and other things).
3.) Other easier options. F-body, CTS-V, LS2 Vette, H3 Hummer all have different pans that are shallower at the sump. But in most cases you give something up (like the f-body pan is shallower at the sump, but deeper ahead of the sump, where crossmember clearance is usually at a premium).
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10-25-2007, 03:31 PM
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10-25-2007, 05:59 PM
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Thats barely shallower... 1" shallower than the truck oil pan is still over 1" too low to the ground. The F body pan is still 2" shallower. CTS-V is 1" shorter at least.
10-25-2007, 07:44 PM
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I cut my truck pan down last week and it went fine. I cut it down to 5.5", same as an F-body. It only holds 4-4.5 qts now. How much does the F-body pan hold? Cast aluminum is challenging to weld, but not impossible.
Here are a couple pics:
Here are a couple pics:
10-26-2007, 06:23 AM
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Sooner or later, they're all going to develop porosity problems, as everything that's cast aluminum does...
Welded ones will just develop them sooner...
Welded ones will just develop them sooner...
10-26-2007, 06:53 AM
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Stock F-body pan I think is 5.5qts. Stock truck pan is 6.5qts. I would not be happy with only 4.5qts...you can suck than dry pretty easy. especially if you ever wanna do some twisties. Even the guys running the fbody pans are over filling them by a qt when they get into race situations. So I hope you plan on somehow getting more oil in there somehow.
10-26-2007, 07:34 AM
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Hey Hotrod,
It looks like you cut a good bit more than 2" out of the bottom! It looks really clean though. I was thinking of reusing the bottom and about 1" with the drain plug and just cutting out 1-1/2" to 2" out of the middle section, then weld the bottom back on. If done right it should cause porosity problems...or will it?
It looks like you cut a good bit more than 2" out of the bottom! It looks really clean though. I was thinking of reusing the bottom and about 1" with the drain plug and just cutting out 1-1/2" to 2" out of the middle section, then weld the bottom back on. If done right it should cause porosity problems...or will it?
10-26-2007, 08:34 AM
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10-26-2007, 09:05 AM
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Come on you casting experts out there: We cut and welded a notch into our '04 GTO oil pan with no problems. The GM pans are die-cast and there is no porosity. Just wash the pan in the dishwasher first, cut and weld. We used 5052 alum for the patch and had an experienced welder TIG the patch in. He used 3/32dia 5356 alum rod and pre-heated the pan before welding. We had some distortion ~~ .06-.08 at each end of the pan, which the pan bolts pulled right down. See pics at:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...=699289&page=5
The pan pic is at the bottom of the page
Garret & Steve almost done with E30-LS1 aka 357is
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...=699289&page=5
The pan pic is at the bottom of the page
Garret & Steve almost done with E30-LS1 aka 357is
10-26-2007, 10:05 AM
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I did cut a lot out of the pan. My car is really low so I didn't have much of a choice. The truck pan would have been .500" below the ground if I didn't shorten it. I'm not terribly happy with the capacity either. I might be able to add some once I see what it looks like in the car. I'm going to leave it this way until I get the headers built. Stock SBC pans are only 4qt, do the LS motors circulate that much more oil?
10-26-2007, 10:15 AM
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Oil capacity in a engine is not a function of lubrication, but cooling. It only takes a part of a quart to lube the internals; the rest of the oil is there to cool places like the underside of the pistons, the main bearings, etc that the radiator coolant can not get near. If you're not pulling a trailer, drag racing, running at high speed for extended periods, you can get by with reduced oil capacity. A 5-qt sump has lost 1qt when the dipstick bottoms out. If you're concerned, add a remote oil cooler if your vehicle does not already have one.
10-26-2007, 11:06 AM
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I did cut a lot out of the pan. My car is really low so I didn't have much of a choice. The truck pan would have been .500" below the ground if I didn't shorten it. I'm not terribly happy with the capacity either. I might be able to add some once I see what it looks like in the car. I'm going to leave it this way until I get the headers built. Stock SBC pans are only 4qt, do the LS motors circulate that much more oil?
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10-27-2007, 09:29 AM
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Oil capacity in a engine is not a function of lubrication, but cooling. It only takes a part of a quart to lube the internals; the rest of the oil is there to cool places like the underside of the pistons, the main bearings, etc that the radiator coolant can not get near. If you're not pulling a trailer, drag racing, running at high speed for extended periods, you can get by with reduced oil capacity. A 5-qt sump has lost 1qt when the dipstick bottoms out. If you're concerned, add a remote oil cooler if your vehicle does not already have one.
Oil pan capacity is a function of not sucking the pan dry running at high RPMs, so that you always have pressure to the lubrication circuits. There was someone on the forum here about a year ago that had done that very thing with a cut F-body pan at the drag strip.