For Those Drag Racers Using A Stock F-body Oil Pan
#1
For Those Drag Racers Using A Stock F-body Oil Pan
I was a newb to the LS world and missed seeing the potential danger of the F-body pan design and got burnt. Repeated hard launches eventually burned up #s 2,3&4 mains, damaged the crank and I don't trust reusing the block. Luckily, all fairly inexpensive parts although the machine work has to be redone.
Improved Racing sells a very nice piece and there are several pans available, albeit a little expensive. Since the root of the problem is that the pickup should be at the rear of the sump, I decided to do just that.
This pic indicates 2 marks on the floor of the pan. The right mark is the middle of the pickup in the stock location and the left is where I wanted to position it.
Here is the end result.
The marks on the skirt in the last pic corresponds to the marks in the pan and measured out to 5.5". In a nutshell, here is what I did:
- Used the F-body pickup and added a slice from an old truck pickup
- Modded the main support bracket to line up with main #4
- Added another support bracket mid-length at main #3 to eliminate vibration. I cut off and modded the main support bracket from the truck pickup for this.
- The windage tray needed a small section removed at main #4 bolt hole to provide clearance for the new location of the support bracket.
- Need to mod the baffle to make it complete.
As the mod was being done, had to be mindful of the pickup clearance in it's new location.
I know not everyone can perform this mod, but hope someone finds it useful and cost-effective. Cost to me was $0 + a favor owed to a buddy for doing the TIG work.
Improved Racing sells a very nice piece and there are several pans available, albeit a little expensive. Since the root of the problem is that the pickup should be at the rear of the sump, I decided to do just that.
This pic indicates 2 marks on the floor of the pan. The right mark is the middle of the pickup in the stock location and the left is where I wanted to position it.
Here is the end result.
The marks on the skirt in the last pic corresponds to the marks in the pan and measured out to 5.5". In a nutshell, here is what I did:
- Used the F-body pickup and added a slice from an old truck pickup
- Modded the main support bracket to line up with main #4
- Added another support bracket mid-length at main #3 to eliminate vibration. I cut off and modded the main support bracket from the truck pickup for this.
- The windage tray needed a small section removed at main #4 bolt hole to provide clearance for the new location of the support bracket.
- Need to mod the baffle to make it complete.
As the mod was being done, had to be mindful of the pickup clearance in it's new location.
I know not everyone can perform this mod, but hope someone finds it useful and cost-effective. Cost to me was $0 + a favor owed to a buddy for doing the TIG work.
#5
Best to date is a 1.34 but not indicative of what the car does on the release of the t-brake. Car would lift the wheels slightly then immediately put them back down and I kept tweaking the suspension. Turns out it was the converter because I had been pulling too much timing right after the launch. Really believe it is capable of 1.30x. Estimate I have about 30 passes with the stock pan.
Here is the pass in my sig, with a 1.36.
Here is the pass in my sig, with a 1.36.
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#11
TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (7)
Oh, I'm 100% in agreement with your mod. My car is just never going to be as bad a$$ as yours...I'm just looking for a little extra protection for mine.
I just don't really want to pull it back apart to modify it...My next F-body pan will definitely have your mod though...
#14
#15
Punched a .75" hole in the drivers-side baffle and with the space between the baffles and the notch for the low-level sender, that should move the oil from the front to the rear pretty good on the launch.
If I change my screen name, will status data like join date, trader rating, post count, etc, be carried over?
If I change my screen name, will status data like join date, trader rating, post count, etc, be carried over?