enlarged oil pick-up to 1/2"

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dazedduster

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I Have A 383 W/ An Oil Pickup Tube That Has Been Enlarged To 1/2"
I Am Worring About It Sucking The Pan Dry At High Rpm's, Its A Stock 187 Oil Pan In A 73 Duster, Has Anyone Done This. Any Suggestions For Increasing Oil Capacity Or Do Think I Am Screwed
 
Spoke to an old MOPAR engine builder about this very issue. He told me that you can actually overfill the pan by almost two quarts. Lose a quart in the motor and filter and overfill the pan so the dipstick reads 1 quart over. He built many of these motors and said it was an old trick he used back in the day and advised that it was perfectly OK. Anyone else hear that this could be done??
 
What I would do is:

With the pan off the car, lay the windage tray on top, and fill it with water 1 quart at a time to see how much it takes to get the fluid level even with the windage tray. Add a quart for the filter and 1 for inside the motor and you have your max capacity without crank interference.

OR:

I had a 383 Road Runner years ago, and added the extra capacity pan from Year One. I think it was the pan for the 426. It was a 7 quart pan with baffles and it solved my "zero oil pressure while accelerating" problem.
 
If you have not changed the pump to an HV model, or done any mods to the system (especially radiusing the pickup passage in the block) you dont have to worry. It's wont pull much more oil.
 
it'll only pump as much oil as the clearances will allow. If the clearances are big enough that it takes all the oil in the pan to keep them filled something is drastically wrong. Also note that Mopars are real good at returning oil to the pan unlike some other engines. An upgraded pickup is a great thing because the stock pickup is too small to begin with. In an article written by Larry Shepard over 20 yrs. ago they tested a stock oil pump and a hv oil pump and the hv pump did not pump any more oil because the inlet was a restriction. I run a stock pan with a 1/2" pickup and a hv pump in my 360 and have ran it real hard and never sucked the pan dry.
 
dazedduster said:
the oil passage has been radiused, going to try the water thing
Click to expand...

I had that problem (noticed I said had) with my 383, HV pump and a 187 pan and this is what I did to fix it. At about 5000 rpm and my foot to the floor my oil pressure (mechanical guage) was starting to fluctuate between 50 and 70 PSI. I removed the oil pan and installed acceleration and deceleration baffles. Next I threw away the mopar windage tray and installed a Milodon, the milodon has more opening in it for the oil to return and they're larger than the mopar. Then I used the water trick, except I used oil, put the pan level on the counter with gasket then windage tray installed and poured in 5 quarts of oil. The oil stops about 1/8 below the windage tray, so this is safe. Then I bolted everything up to the engine and poured in 5 quarts of oil and scribed a line on the dip stick so basically with the filter I put in 5 1/2 quarts. Oh yea the scribed line is 3/8" above the full mark on the dip stick. Problem's gone now, run her up to 6000 and pressure stays at 70 PSI.

terry
 
I feel like I've been hiding under a rock.... where can I get a pump with 1/2" inlet and a 1.2" pickup?
 
I would baffle the pan at that point, and as part of a build, I enlarge and add drainback holes and deburr the drain areas to help get it back down into the pan. It's about oil control, not volume. I also open the holes in the MP trays.
 
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