oil pan upgrade

[mnmike59]

As we have all moved into the performance driving realm and realized that lots of parts we might have purchased due to Internet buzz and car show crowds were totally unnecessary, etc...

That's a fact!

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[ddozier]

That being said and while there are slight differences in the 11-14 coyote and the 15+, has anyone taken a look under the local NASA American Iron or SCCA racers cars? I spoke to a few AI guys in generalities and oil starve, but not about oil pans or specifics. Anyone spoken to anyone running the oil pans?

I shared a garage with the guys from Fall-line Motorsports while at COTA this year. They were there to support several customer cars they built so I had time to get to know a couple of the techs and the owners son. Since we had lots of down time between sessions I asked a lot of questions. They were building several S550s at the time and all were getting upgraded oil pans and oil pump gears. They were adamant they would be needed for anything that was going to be seeing some serious track time. They also recommended oil cooler, trans cooler, trans upgrade to a TR6060 or MagnumXL, and a diff cooler as minimum upgrades for anyone wanting to run more than 30 min sessions. They also raised some concerns about the steering racks in the S550 and if a full on track only build was being planned changing the steering column and rack would not be a bad idea.

You can take their advice for what it is, someone else's option, and I should also let you know that the questions I asked had revolved around max reliability as I enjoy driving my car more than working on it. I even asked them what other items they thought needed to be changed if the car was going to be used more for endurance racing than sprint racing and they said they build their cars to an endurance racing standard for reliability while sprint racing. Other than choosing a lighter part (ie. more expensive) for a sprint race car the two builds would be very similar.

It is interesting to note Fall-Line uses a very large oil cooler the size of an AC condenser that is basically the same size as the radiator on their BMW builds. Very large air to oil coolers to keep the BMWs happy with oil temps.

Dave

 

[Brent Dalton]

Thanks for sharing Dave!

 

[S550Smoke]

Comparisons for anyone interested.

 

[mbeale68]

GT350 oil pan: https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-6675-M52

 

[ddozier]

The Moroso oil pan as well, and the GT350 pan, its plastic inside and out.

Dave

 

[Plimmer]

How does our stock oil pan look inside? And baffles or oil scrapers?

 

[GT_Roadcourse_Newb]

Wow, I kind of want to do this upgrade now..

The benefit of a metal pan just for a touch of cooling and larger oil pool-
-never mind the baffles and purported better high-cornering load performance...

Wondering,
Why not weld a thin 'honeycomb', flat based copper apparatus to the bottom of the alum pan for addn'l cooling...?

Would it be bad to cool the oil at the bottom of the pan for some reason? (circulation inefficiency perhaps?)

 

[Bahndvr]

Pics of the inside of the Canton and Moroso oil pans before mounting?

 

[ddozier]

Wondering,
Why not weld a thin 'honeycomb', flat based copper apparatus to the bottom of the alum pan for addn'l cooling...?

The Moroso comes in either aluminum or steel, I chose the steel pan for the durability as the pan is quite exposed and was concerned about debris and off track excursions possibly damaging the pan. The aluminum is slightly lighter and should offer slightly better cooling, but since the cars have external oil cooling the pan material for cooling is less of an issue. Also if you are using any sort of an under-tray you will be limiting air movement to the pan so its ability to act as a heat sink will be limited. You could duct air to the pan to help but even with the added air the ability to draw enough BTUs off the pan would be unlikely to have any real effect on oil temps.

The pans offer the same sump level as OEM so the OEM pickup is used, they make use of the OEM windage tray, they are larger in capacity by 2 qt. and use four trap door style anti-slosh baffles to keep the oil at the pickup. The steel pan is considerably cheaper than the aluminum pan.

The inside of the factory GT oil pan has very little baffling around the pickup and is made from stamped steel sheet metal. It uses a single level baffle tack welded just above the height of the pickup with no traps or anti-slosh other than that one piece.

Dave

 

[ddozier]

Pics of the inside of the Canton and Moroso oil pans before mounting?

I did not take any pics but these are on the web. The trap doors make a diamond shape around the pickup location.

 

[402]

I am still on the fence if i will do a new oil pan or not.. Possibly an accusump.

 

[DAVECS1]

How much work was it to in stall. I am thinking a weekend of installing opgs, sprocket, and a pan may not be a bad investment in time, if my car is going to see 5-6 events a year

 

[ddozier]

How much work was it to in stall. I am thinking a weekend of installing opgs, sprocket, and a pan may not be a bad investment in time, if my car is going to see 5-6 events a year

I did my oil pan and headers at the same time so there was a lot of stuff I had out of the way, it can be done with the stock exhaust in place without an issue. I did the entire project on a lift in about 3.5 hours so if the headers were not involved then maybe it can be done in about 1.5 hours. The engine must be raised and the lower engine support cradle must be lowered to make enough room for the pan to drop down and clear the pickup. Some guys drop the lower cradle and support the engine from the top and they say it is faster that way but I was able to make it work without completely removing the lower cradle. I followed the service manual method for replacing the oil pan.

I am sure that doing this without a lift, trans jack and screw jack to support everything as you take it apart will add lots of time, but it can be done.

Dave

 

[Schu]

Did you need to replace or modify the pick up on either the moroso or canton?

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