318 Rebuild question and oil pan questions

[96Formula6sp]

Hey guys we are going to be rebuilding our 318 in our lemons car. At our last race we had a couple issues pop up including a cracked piston on number two. Anyways here it goes.

So first up are oil pumps. Might as well replace it while we have the engine out. I am usually a fan of OEM pumps. Looks like dodge still makes them or is it a reboxed unit? Would really not want a melling in there as me and a few friends have had many many many failures. Most in the sub 1000 mile range. I actually do not know of anybody who has had one last more than 5k without issues. Car is a lemons car and going road racing. So will be turning left and right. Standard pressure is fine. Summits Dodge unit is a high volume. That should be ok. What do most people like to go with.

Second up. Oil pans. At our last race at barber we were loosing oil pressure bad in left hand turns. Car has an external oil cooler. It takes about a quart of oil. We added extra oil to cover that but still had issues. So I guess we need to look into a new oil pan or adding some windage to the current one. What do the circle track guys do? Right hand turns were no issue. So I guess the oil is running away from the pickup.

Tear down looks to be this weekend. So we can figure out what is in the bottom end. Figure I would throw a few questions to see what people are liking to run these days.

 

[wyrmrider]

do you have to run an oem pan or aftermarket?
do you have an oil accumulator? they cover lots of sins
did you drill the front oil passage plugs to vent any air in the oil?
stick or auto?
you can put a remote oil pressure regulator at the opposite end of the block from the pump (I've done Big Block but not a small block) then use a hp spring in the pump
that way the oil bypassed is not just going around in a circle
how bout the cross over hose in the valley?

 

[Darter6]

When we built a drag car we welded in "Slosh Baffles" in a stock pan.They were forward/aft.You may try something like it for left turn/right turn to keep the pickup submerged .

 

[96Formula6sp]

do you have to run an oem pan or aftermarket?
do you have an oil accumulator? they cover lots of sins
did you drill the front oil passage plugs to vent any air in the oil?
stick or auto?
you can put a remote oil pressure regulator at the opposite end of the block from the pump (I've done Big Block but not a small block) then use a hp spring in the pump
that way the oil bypassed is not just going around in a circle
how bout the cross over hose in the valley?

- Its an OEM Pan to my knowledge.
- No oil accumulator. Could be nice. But again this is lemons and the car is in class c.
- Not sure if this was done. We did not build this engine the first time. We ran it two races but after finding the cracked piston when fixing the head gaskets at Barber it is time for a rebuild. Will look into this mod.
- Custom Ar-5 5spd manual swap from a Chevy Colorado. So manual transmission.
- Never herd of doing a remote oil pressure regulator. Could also look

When we built a drag car we welded in "Slosh Baffles" in a stock pan.They were forward/aft.You may try something like it for left turn/right turn to keep the pickup submerged .

View attachment 596746

Yeah got to look into this. Was not sure if there was a kit at all. We did an oil pan gasket when we did the manual swap as it was puking oil out of one of the corners. Anyways I think this engine has no windage at all. Which if that is the case step one would be get something in there.

 

[96Formula6sp]

As for the fun. This is why we are rebuilding the engine. Granted we ran it another 7 hours on Sunday and it held together. Yes we know the valves have touched at some point.

 

[wyrmrider]

several vendors of windage trays + oem- need the special main bolts
IDK what they did on the trans am cars before dry sump- I was with Javelin
do you have an Isky tool for those valve reliefs?

 

[96Formula6sp]

several vendors of windage trays + oem- need the special main bolts
IDK what they did on the trans am cars before dry sump- I was with Javelin
do you have an Isky tool for those valve reliefs?

Pretty sure stock valve springs and the small cam in this car we had some valve float at 5k. Not all the pistons have marks on them. So going with the custom way of just smashing the pistons into the valves. We will be checking everything while the engine was apart. Not like lemons where we threw gaskets at it and sent if off for another 7 hours of racing.

 

[wyrmrider]

a set of take out springs not too hard to find and fit the concept
the isky tool will prevent a bent valve which could break a cast piston and then...

 

[moper]

It's probably more than slosh. Install a scraper and pan with a deeper and larger sump. Evn a modified stocker. I would not run the higher volume pump. Run std volume and add the MP high pressure relief spring package. It's more than you need.

 

[wyrmrider]

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopa...rested-in-the-oiling-mods-i-did.103623/page-2

 

[96Formula6sp]

So tear down is complete. Lets just say the pistons are lemons approved. Found no windage tray. So as well as the oil mods we will be looking to add some sort of windage tray to the system. Also found some junk in the bottom of the oil pan as well as a mostly clogged oil pickup tube from chunks of piston skirts. Guys doing the tear down said they would laugh as they would touch something and hear a clunk of something metal falling out of the block. Good news crank is fine. Rods are ok. Bearings are worn but we figured they would be worse. I will throw some pictures up later. Should be pistons, valve springs and maybe a new cam away from a rebuild. Plus the normal stuff.

 

[96Formula6sp]

Well figure I would finally show the pictures from the tear down. Anyways rebuild has started with new pistons. Also doing a basic windage tray. This should help the current problems anyways some good pictures.

Little pieces found in the pan...and the oil pickup tube.

Piston number 8

Might have been cause of some blow by. Might just be lemons approved rings.

The real interesting one. Piston Number 2

What is amazing is the engine ran without any bad sounds. Crank looks ok. So hopefully the engine will be back together before a time trial on Memorial Day Weekend.