If you use an expanded oil pan, or an oil cooler, could you explain why you use it/them, and what results you got from it?

Thanks.

 

Is there not a single person who has a modified pan or oil cooler?

 

I thought about it, but the oil in this engine design doesn't do much to cool the engine, and over-cooling the oil can cause some massive nasty sludge buildup.

 

Using a larger oil pan will keep the oil modestly cooler primarly due to having more of a heat sink in the volume of oil. A oil cooler will cool the oil significantly as it is essentialy a radiator for the oil.

If one were to do a large amount of heavy towing with a 300 I would think that a smaller oil cooler would be a benifit. The reason being is that the oil is the #2 extractor of heat in an engine.

460s when used in the super duty trucks in the mid 90s had 8 quart pans vs the 6 qt used on f250/350 models of that era.

Yeah, it can help. But unless your engine is running hot or you are doing alot of hard towing they are more of a gimmick.

 

I am curious about this, because when researching types of 300 builds on classicinlines.com, I saw that with the sbf inlines, everyone over slightly modified, they recommend an expanded oil pan.

It stands to reason (IMHO), that when taking a 300 that is ca. 120 hp from the factory, and turning it into a 200 hp machine, you would thereby be putting a greater demand on your oil/lubrication system? Right?

Would not adding 1-2 qt capacity to your pan greatly increase logevity of your oil, and of course drop the temp, thereby adding to the lub. capabilities of the oil?

Of course the question is: where does the border between lowering temp. and creating sludge exist?

I believe I will try to combine the rear sump pan with the mid sump one, adding to the capacity a bit more than 1.5 qt.

 

What about dual remote oil filters? That would give you an extra quart capacity and help cool the oil as well without all the rigmarole of fabbing/dropping/replacing the oil pan.

 

I belive the small six had a factory 4qt oilpan. This is why they use a bumped pan. The problom with the 4qt pan in HP use was more of a windage and slow drain back issue. This would cause oil starvation in the engine. Adding the oil allowed for sufficent oil to continuiously pump.

Adding 1-2 qts aditional capacity shouldent increase the risk of sludge any. I would think that as long as the oil is warmer then 140 you will be ok. You are only going to drop your oil temp about 5-20 degees by adding capacity.

The easiest way to add capacity is by winging the pan out on the sides. this should give you another 1.5 qts or so.

Remember that a 428 SCJ in a 69 mustang only had a 6 qt pan. They did not have any probloms with that 400HP V8 having poor oil.

 

It would be an interesting configuration...to have about a 2X4" 'wing' coming out the back of the pan on either side. No room in front or middle.

I guess with the h.v. pump it would make me feel safer. I might play a bit with the wire feed.

 

You realy wont be gaining much but I dont think you will harm anything either.
Make sure to clean the spatter out of the pan good!
Good luck on your project.

 

Don't most of the adapters for the oil cooler have a thermostat bypass on them so that the oil doesn't get too cool or is that something that mainly is sold in the northern climates? I seem to recall when first looking that some of the adapters I saw were 180* thermostatic types so that the oil would only go out through the cooler when it went over 180*. I would think that would prevent sludge since you're not running cold oil through it just the oil that needs to be cooled.

I want to add a cooler to my '92 300(4.9) for the added oil capacity. I'm switching over to synthetics and am going by the idea the it's the heat that actually breaks down the oil and shortens it's life so if I keep it cooler, it serves 2 basic purposes.

1. Helps to keep the engine cooler. Thereby helping to prolong the life of the engine
2. Keeps the oil cooler. Thereby allowing it to run longer between changes.

I've considered "coolering" various parts of the engine and drive train after looking at my 08 Ram Megacab. It not only has the usual Radiator and Transmission cooler but also and Oil Cooler and Power Steering Pump cooler. Yes, it is rigged as a tow vehicle and technically is a 2500 chassis vehicle but still, other than operational temperatures required for the EFI and EEC-IV computer, can anyone explain when keeping something cool is a bad thing?

 

Poor combustion? Thermal expansion of parts for sealing? Seem like good ideas.

I live in a northern climate. I know what oil looks like at cold temps. Unless you are doing a ton of hauling or have cooling issues in general this is redundant. I just did the complete opposite of what yall are doing. I installed an oil pan heater! Why? So the oil will flow instead of just sit there.

 

Unless your HV oil pump is sucking air under stress,(starvation) don't see any advantage. You really don't want an engine to run any cooler than 185 degrees anyway. Extended oil life not a factor worth considering. But just my opinion.

 

A guy on the other forum posted that with his 'mega build' 300 that he flat track races, after 5 seasons racing, turning 6k in 95 degree heat, he has never considered a modified pan. He pulled a rod to check, and thought it would last another 5 seasons.

That pretty much shut me up.