Just got a real deal on a brand new canton 15-246T oil pan. Just curious if anyone can give me some feedback on how well these pans fit the 93-97 f body's. I have done back to back dyno test on BBC and seen 40 HP from an average pan to a side kick out with windage tray pan. My motor is already all topend as is but if it will pick up some more power upstairs I may just drop the cradle and put it on instead of selling the pan.I'm already peaking power at 6700 rpm. Pan might get me another 100 or 2 more rpm. Any thoughts?

 

Extremely hit or miss with the Canton pans. IIRC I think the 242T is the one you want for an LT1 though, not 246T. Apparently there was a revision so newer ones should fit better then the older.

Also, which I think a of of peoples problems with them are, is that they are pretty fragile. I have a 242T that fit fine when I first mocked it up, but it was in a cardboard box in my garage for a year and ended up under some tools so it got warped and fits terribly now.

I needed to use the bolts to torque it into place since the holes wouldn't even line up anymore. They warp way easier then the rigid stock pan.

 

Canton lists the 15-246T as a 3rd-Gen pan (1982-1992 f-body) -- I'm not entirely certain what separates it from the correct 4th-gen pan for our cars (15-242T, as Puck stated). At very least, might want to compare your pan to the following (found via GIS):


Found an old photo of mine, if it helps: https://i.imgur.com/Dwl21ax.jpg

I've run the 242T for about 8 years now. Without knowing the particulars of your LT1, I strongly doubt the crank scraper/windage tray will free up anything near 40 horses -- but then again, I doubt a dyno sloshes the oil around nearly as much as it would on actual pavement, so assessing power gains might not be truly determinable in any case. I'd venture 10~15hp is a safer bet -- anyone who claims greater gains likely isn't RPM-limited by the factory PCM.

-Cantons tend to leak. I recommend using high-temp red loctite on any extra ports (the 242T has an extra port on top of the passenger-side kick-out), and I personally used a thin bead of "permatex right stuff" on the gasket mating surfaces to ensure a good tight seal if the mating surfaces aren't perfectly true (mine doesn't leak a drop). Be sure to reuse the two factory flange braces.

-Clearance with my longtube headers was marginal. I ended up moving the low-oil sensor port toward the front of the driver's-side kick-out to get it away from the header collector, and I had to modify my aftermarket CVR starter to clear the passenger-side kick-out. I still have clearance issues installing/removing oil filters with my particular brand of headers, which is a bit silly.

-Don't forget the Canton-specific oil pump pickup (for reference, I believe mine was Canton p/n 20-013), and it's also probably a good idea to upgrade to poly engine mounts if you haven't already -- aftermarket pans are sometimes a pretty tight fit with the k-member, particularly with saggy stock rubber mounts. Any interference could get picked up as false knock.

-The kickouts have trap doors, though if memory serves, some auto-X/road-course guys running this pan have had oil pump cavitation issues when they go *****-out on hard turns / hard stops. Not sure if they were having oil control problems with the pan itself, or something else particular to their build, but just something to watch out for.

 

Yea pan is for a 3rd Gen but says it will fit 4th Gen but may need to lower the rack. Reason I got it was the pan was listed as a 15-246 for old 1st Gen SBC so I originally got it for my 400 but when I got it it was the 15-246T. I only paid 165 for it new so I jumped all over it. It may not get near a 40 HP gain but I can tell you from all the back to back testing I've done on the engine dyno if you are spinning one to 7k rpm a good oil pan really seems to be one of the better power gains for a bolt on piece. Im running ls1 pcm with 24x setup so buzzing it is no issue.

 

The 242t will fit fine on a 4th gen.

 

I'm also running the 242t, it just touches the steering rack, and the oil level sensor isnt being used right now because it is close to the Hooker LT headers, but oil filter clearance is not an issue for mine.

 

Can you get a pic of this? Reason I ask it there have been complaints before of this very thing and it was found out the pan was not a 242t.

 

My mistake, I just double checked my pan, it's the 244t, the 3rd gen 1-piece rear RR pan.