trobert3

Help, I purchased a muscle car oil pan kit from gmpd to be installed on a 2009 5.3 vvt motor. My question is the truck oil pan has the oil pressure releif valve and muscle car oil pan does not, if i use the mucle car oil pan without the oil prtessure releif valve will this damage engine and can the muscle car oil pan be tapped and drilled to receive the oil pressure relief valve.

rk66

I have the same issue with a 2008 dod 5.3 from a truck. I also purchased the GMPP oil pan. I'm going to attempt to drill and tap the pan to accept the relief valve from the truck pan. The valve size is 14 x 1.5mm. Has anyone else done this , my concern is the amount of material in the area to be drilled.
If I can tap enough threads to hold the valve

GC99TA

iTrader: (30)

I think the most commonly accepted answer to this is that the vvt and/or dod motor have a slightly higher pressure oil pump since vvt and dod components are partially operated by oil pressure. So, considering that these vehicle need to be able to operate in extreme cold temperatures where oil pressures could be excessively high at start up. So, as long as you don't plan on starting and running you swapped motor in extreme cold temps, you'll PROBABLY be fine without the pressure relief valve. This is what I'm banking on as I'm in the same boat with a former vvt motor and LH8 pan. Also, for what its worth, I think I've heard some of the AC Delco filter that are compatible with these pans have an internal bypass as well. Sorry, I'm not sure which ones though. A search would probably turn u the numbers.

rk66

I was able to drill and tap the gmpp pan to add the pressure relief valve for my dod engine. I used a 31/64 drill and 14X1.5mm tap. It was fairly simple job

Pop N Wood

iTrader: (1)

I thought about that too, but oil filter bypasses only keep oil flowing through the filter when it gets clogged. I don't think it does anything to reduce the pressure of now unfiltered oil going to the rest of the engine.

GC99TA

iTrader: (30)

Good point. For what its worth, I just started my LY6 with the high pressure pump and no relief valve a few weeks ago. On a mechanical gauge it holds 40psi at a cold idle in 70 degree weather, so I don't think excessive pressure will be an issue. My LS1 TA with ported LS6 pump holds 38psi in similar cold idle conditions.

mserges

How deep did you drill before hitting the oil passage? How deep did you tap the threads?

Was going to take my pan the the local machine shop but they will want to know how deep to drill and how much to tap....Thanks!!!

Blevinator

BRP Hotrods sold me the LH8 pan with pan machined for the relief valve. Chech them out!!

rk66

when you drill, you actually go into the oil filter galley, so you can see the opening and how far you need to go and tap

DW SD

Did any of you run a VVT engine without the bypass retro-fitted to the Muscle Car pan? If so, any feedback on the change to the oil pressure?

I'm thinking of installing the LS1 pan on my stock L92 without the bypass. It doesn't seem like there is a flat surface (or large enough surface) to install the bypass valve. See inside of the LS1 pan (bottom of two pans in picture).

Thank you!

Doug

jimmyg

I was told the valve was only for dod/afm

DW SD

Yeah, lots of different opinions / conjecture on the board. It does seem that the VVT engines use the high volume pump and therefore might have a need to bleed off extra pressure.
I talked to the guys at Improved Racing yesterday and they say I need the valve if I'm going to retain VVT.

Anyone using VVT and a non-pressure relief valved pan without issue?
thank you,

Doug

67Skylark

I have a 2009 LY6 with VVT intact, F-body pan without oil relief. I do have a gauge as well as oil pressure feed to the ecm. I have never noticed oil pressure problem. I have a couple thousand miles on it so far. Live in Florida so no cold starts. Just a cruiser/dd, so not much WOT operation.

richard david

I have the oil pan from summit on my ly6 motor and i have aroud 58psi at idle and around 120 at 7000rpm. Will this hurt anything.

DW SD

Hi,
Thank you for the feedback. My use case and environment is similar. I do try to get on it here and there, but nothing crazy and not racing and don't expect to see any cold weather. 50 degree evening is about the coldest.

Richard,
I'd be nervous about 120psi, but am no expert. At some level, it starts to blow out seals, I believe. Is that hot or cold (assuming hot since you mentioned 7k rpm)?

Doug

67Skylark

I show mid 40's to low 50's never seen anything above 60psi. I'm rpm limited by ecm around 5700ish.

richard david

That is oil pressure at operating temp. I also wonder if this much pressure will make my lifters pump up to far at wot.

DW SD

Thank you. My relief valve seems to work. I never see over 55 psi (assuming my electronic pressure gauge is accurate). If I leave in the morning in winter I'm @ 55 psi.

I see as low as 25 psi @ idle and on the highway cruise @ 2k rpm about 40 psi.

I don't really look at the gauge under WOT, but believe it'd peg @ 55 psi under higher rpm.

I would wonder if I ran with no relief valve and at high rpms if the pressure would scale and how it would.

Appreciate the feedback here.

Richard,
120 psi seems awfully high - is your gauge calibrated? Perhaps that's the issue by itself? I think many who go to a muscle car pan remove VVT and perhaps change to a lower volume oil pump from the VVT / DOD pumps. I think a good rule of thumb is 10 to 15 psi per 1k rpm on oil pressure.

Doug

ImprovedRacing

Here's the scoop from what we understand:

Vehicles with VVT and DOD/AFM have high volume oil pumps because those systems are hydraulically operated by oil pressure and consume more oil when active. The problem is that when those systems are not active, oil flow is decreased and oil pressure can be higher than desired. The relief valve in the pan returns that excess oil flow directly to the pan when it isn't needed to maintain reasonable oil pressures. Most of these vehicles also have large capacity oil pans to prevent them from being pumped dry when those systems are active and consuming more oil.

This is why we don't recommend running a high volume pump on an engine that does not have VVT or AFM. An additional problem is that when racing, this pump will empty the oil pan faster and result in oil starvation. Under high G-loads, over 2 quarts of oil can accumulate in one valve cover before it will start draining back to the oil pan, so you can basically end up running 2 quarts low if you have too much oil flow.

Will it hurt anything to not run the relief valve? I don't really know. We haven't really seen any major problems that could be attributed to the higher pressures. But if you have VVT or AFM, you should run the higher flow oil pump, relief valve, and preferably a high capacity oil pan, especially if it's a track car.

DW SD

Hi,
Totally appreciate your weighing in. An expert opinion is really great! I talked to Jared at your operation yesterday and he wasn't terribly educated on the subject, but was very professional in finding more info and updating me. He didn't explain the issues too well.

I have an old pickup that is a cruiser. Occasionally, I'll whomp on the gas pedal, but don't do high - G cornering, so I am probably a good candidate for a lower volume pan. My pan hangs below the crossmember, so I've either got to take that risk, risk oil starvation or build a skid plate that protects the pan. I haven't ruled out the latter, but don't necessarily want to add a bunch of weight to my truck, either.

can you please list the pans that Improved Racing sells with the relief valve installed (perhaps for future reference, is it only L99 and L92)?

Also, are there any pans you sell that may be machined for installation of the valve? It seems plenty of folks have retro-fitted the valve.

I was eyeing the F-body / LS1 pan, but the casting inside doesn't seem to have enough material to drill out and tap for the valve. Given my application, and installing the valve, 5.5 quart capacity would be fine.
Any comments along these lines?

thank you much,

Doug