Figuring oil capacity on a 62-5 stock B pan

[BenH]

The car is a 65 satellite. It had a 361 in it originally, but I put together a 440 for it and swapped them out. In the swap, the oil pan issues which are common with this car arose and I used the original 361 B block oil pan and pickup because it was the only option. This is a particularly shallow pan and I believe is considered 4 quart capacity, so that plus a filter quart brings it to 5qt total I assume.

Questions are:

Is that the correct capacity, in your opinion should I use a bit more?

In your opinion, will this setup suffice on a 507/510 cam 440 with bumped up compression? Not racing, cruising and having fun.


thx

 

[Don Frelier]

Do you know if it has a windage tray?
A 440 doesn't need more oil than a 361.
Should be good to 5,500 RPM no problem.
You can put more than 5 quarts in it as well.

 

[Lefty71]

You can get a pretty good idea what you existing pan's capacity is by making a mark exactly 1.5" below the pan rail. With it off the motor, setting it up level, pour a measured amount of liquid in it until it reaches the mark you made earlier. If it comes up to not quite 5 quarts, you know you have a 5 quart (stock) pan. This should work for any motor not raced, nor auto-crossed that is using a stock stroke crankshaft in a big block or hemi. The 1.5" mark is derived from your stock dipstick's desired full mark. In your case, I'd be more worried about the quality of oil available and the need for regular oil changes to maintain engine health.

 

[Jeff Peterson]

Fwiw, I used a Moroso 20760 pan with the exact car/engine combo and fit fine.

 

[BenH]

all 3 responses lovely, thank you for sharing

ironically my dipstick is some chrome replacement turd off amazon that has awful markings but I will do some measuring and plan to mark the stick with a fresh oil change to guide it

I like to use 15w40 Rotella with zinc additive on older engines rebuilt or not, and like to mix in a little Marvel in the oil and gas (premium only for higher compression) so I hope quality should be OK

 

[topside]

Street use = no problem.
The issue with wet-sump shallow pans is that the rotating assy scoops oil up from the sump as RPM increases.
At higher RPM, that oil becomes a rope around the crank & rods, which not only creates drag, but aerates the oil.
Smokey Yunick proved that on his Spintron back in the '60s.
Do NOT run more than designed capacity. DO add a windage tray or scraper for any performance use.

 

[matthon]

I put one of those Summit combo gasket/windage tray deals on my a-body bb, with the stock shallow pan.
The gasket worked great, but at high rpm the oil pressure tanked.

I pulled it, cut the windage tray part out, used the pan gasket part, no leaks and no oil pressure issues. It's a very good gasket design.

Whether it was in the same position as an actual separate windage tray, or similar design, not sure, but my interpretation was it was preventing the oil from returning to the pan.

Thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[topside]

I haven't used one of those, but that isn't a good product review !
I've used mostly Milodon or MP, but I open up the louvers a bit to promote better drainage.
Also a big proponent of using the biggest pan I can fit in the space allowed, but that sounds like probable overkill for the OP.

 

[PRND21]

Keep in mind that reproduction max wedge pans are available in many places, at 5+1 capacity.

 

[Dave6T4]

My '64 shop manual shows 5 quarts with filter change. These old pans do not usually have baffles. I run a windage tray with mine. I use a high pressure oil pump with this, not a high volume.

 

[BenH]

thanks again for replies

re: moroso 20760: not crazy about the moroso pans, I lowered the car on the torsions a bit and was never a big fan of the moroso design or appearance, just looks like steel jowls hanging out underneath ready for a bad bridge transition or speed bump to ruin your day

re: commonly available max wedge pans: 2 things for me, a 7qt+ system means I probably ought to consider a different oil pump too, and will definitely need to mess around with pickups and gaskets and trays. i'd prefer to use what I already have there. they are also from what I understand intended for 62-64 applications, and I have read multiple people running into an issue on a 65 car trying to make 62/3/4 things work, so it wasn't really about the availability when I was building and installing but more about not wanting to deal with more headaches after having already installed and tried the race hemi pan and it not working when I dropped the motor in. I work on a gravel/dirt floor with 4 jack stands and a floor jack.

I will look into some windage trays once I have put some miles on it, I am just now registering and insuring the car to get it ready for spring but have been working on it a couple years. what effect will adding a windage tray have on my stock pickup? need a new pickup with the tray?

thx everyone