jbc426
Well-Known Member
My 5.9 stroker Magnum was smoking on hard acceleration in 3rd and 4th gear. It wouldn't do it in 1st or 2nd....so I though. I suspected bad baffling in the valve covers causing the PCV system to suck oil, which it did a bit. I thought maybe my intake was sucking oil, my rings hadn't seated fully or I had some bad valve guides and seals. All the clues were there from the start. I even read the Hot Rodding article about the Junkyard Jewel -129 hp increase, and still missed it.
I also had an occasional engine oil leak that occurred when parked, but only after it had been driven hard. It finally dawned on me that it was oil burning on the headers under hard acceleration, and it took that long open throttle through the first few gears to heat the tubes up enough near the collectors to really start smoking. I set out to change the pan gasket this morning.
I ordered a fresh set of 4-piece pan gaskets from Cometic (it's the only gasket set they sell for the Magnum & LA360), and once I compared them to the one-piece Felpro gasket I had in there, I saw the difference. For a few minutes, I thought Cometic sent me the wrong gaskets. I wanted the new and improved one-piece gasket for a Magnum. Then, suddenly it dawned on me. I needed to use the 4 piece LA pan gaskets to install an LA pan on a Magnum motor. I read it, but it never registered, as I though I had ordered a pan to fit a 5.9 Magnum from Summit. However, it's just an LA 360 pan.
The Milidon pan I installed has two short indentions near the pan rail on the front timing cover cutout arc. It is an LA 360 pan, not a Magnum pan. I never noticed the difference on initial assembly. The one piece Magnum gasket does not fill those indentions and allows a significant amount of oil out with positive crankcase pressure, and my motor is a Magnum motor. I never really noticed my oil pan is a 360 pan. It fits both LA 360's and 5.9 Magnums, but only with the LA oil pan gaskets. I missed the fact that it wasn't a Magnum pan.
((added pics: notice on the final pic it shows a cleaner spot near the end, where the one-piece gasket failed to seal the indentations in the LA 360 pan, and it's design shrouded the source of those oil leaks making them harder to find when searching under the car.))
Live and learn. Sometimes the hard way, even though I read about this a few years ago. I hate oil leaks, and am grateful that soon I will be able to drive my car like I want with no ugly smoke coming out the back end at full throttle.
I also had an occasional engine oil leak that occurred when parked, but only after it had been driven hard. It finally dawned on me that it was oil burning on the headers under hard acceleration, and it took that long open throttle through the first few gears to heat the tubes up enough near the collectors to really start smoking. I set out to change the pan gasket this morning.
I ordered a fresh set of 4-piece pan gaskets from Cometic (it's the only gasket set they sell for the Magnum & LA360), and once I compared them to the one-piece Felpro gasket I had in there, I saw the difference. For a few minutes, I thought Cometic sent me the wrong gaskets. I wanted the new and improved one-piece gasket for a Magnum. Then, suddenly it dawned on me. I needed to use the 4 piece LA pan gaskets to install an LA pan on a Magnum motor. I read it, but it never registered, as I though I had ordered a pan to fit a 5.9 Magnum from Summit. However, it's just an LA 360 pan.
The Milidon pan I installed has two short indentions near the pan rail on the front timing cover cutout arc. It is an LA 360 pan, not a Magnum pan. I never noticed the difference on initial assembly. The one piece Magnum gasket does not fill those indentions and allows a significant amount of oil out with positive crankcase pressure, and my motor is a Magnum motor. I never really noticed my oil pan is a 360 pan. It fits both LA 360's and 5.9 Magnums, but only with the LA oil pan gaskets. I missed the fact that it wasn't a Magnum pan.
((added pics: notice on the final pic it shows a cleaner spot near the end, where the one-piece gasket failed to seal the indentations in the LA 360 pan, and it's design shrouded the source of those oil leaks making them harder to find when searching under the car.))
Live and learn. Sometimes the hard way, even though I read about this a few years ago. I hate oil leaks, and am grateful that soon I will be able to drive my car like I want with no ugly smoke coming out the back end at full throttle.
