SB Mopar oiling mods

[Woodruff]

Building a 408 flat tappet engine for my tow truck. I will be a little under geared with a 3.54 and a 31” tire. 46 RH OD trans. Towing a 26’ box with a 2700 lb car. Lots of hills here in Appalachia. Question is what oiling mods would be beneficial and what mods would be over the top for a tow vehicle?? Thanks

[rebelrouser]

The only ones I do for a street engine is to drill the oil passages from the top of the main saddle to the lifter galley on the PASSENGER side of the block to 9/32. Do not drill passages to the cam. Do not restrict oil to the rockers. And just take a small die grinder and radius the oil feed passages, and clean up any flashing, where the oil filter adapter attaches to the side of the block to the oil pump. I like to use the oil driper on the front where it lubes the timing chain off the older 340's, instead of the hollow bolt like the newer 360's use. Buy a good high volume pump. On my personal engine in my Cuda I run the older 340 style right angle adapter with a small system one oil filter. I just like being able to check for debris at every oil change, without the hassle of cutting a stock type filter apart. Picture is of my street 69 cuda engine, 408, fuel injected, procharger.

Recovered_JPEG Digital Camera_5843.jpg

[BigBlockMopar]

I doubt you 'need' any/much oil-mods for a low rpm truck engine.

For my daily car's 360-LA engine I've radiused the oil-feed passages and where the oilpump mates to the main bearing-saddle.
I've enlarged and added holes to the plate behind the oil-filter mount for more (possible) flow.

[Kevin Johnson]

When you are towing up and down hills/grades the incline affects the surface of the oil in the pan as an apparent G-force.

Mercedes tested their trucks and passenger cars on tilting platforms to simulate this. See SAE 750051
https://www.sae.org/publications/techni ... nt/750051/

It is quite possible that foaming/churning of the oil will occur.

You can test this theory by taking your empty oil pan and filling it with the amount of water that would represent oil that remains in the pan during operation. Tilt the pan by the amount of the grade. Remember to include the tilt of the engine as it sits in the chassis.

Remember that oil sprayed by the mains and rods and draining from the heads will not magically return to the sump if the tilt of the pan creates a de-facto second sump in a normally clear area. This is why the sustained operation is important.

[Walter R. Malik]

Building a 408 flat tappet engine for my tow truck. I will be a little under geared with a 3.54 and a 31” tire. 46 RH OD trans. Towing a 26’ box with a 2700 lb car. Lots of hills here in Appalachia. Question is what oiling mods would be beneficial and what mods would be over the top for a tow vehicle?? Thanks

Get a good oil pan which controls where the oil is at, in the pan, to be sure the pick-up is always covered under all conditions. Simply a deeper sump with horizontal baffles works fine.

The oil filter recess cover plate needs the holes through it to have at least the area near that of a 1/2" single hole and they do not.
Drill the holes in a 6 hole plate to 5/16" or add 4 more 9/32" holes holes to a 4 hole plate; 8 holes total.

Maybe drill a small .031" hole in the rear oil gallery plug in front of the distributor gear for positive oil to the gear.

[Woodruff]

So HV pump, factory bearing clearances?

[Walter R. Malik]

So HV pump, factory bearing clearances?

Standard volume oil pump is fine unless your running wide clearances; which is not a good idea here.

[Woodruff]

Got it thanks

[DeezNutz]

Drill a small hole through your thrust bearing into the back side of the block into the oil galley. Positive thrust oiling always made my trans brake equipped 360s very happy. I think it may be overkill for you but it wont hurt in high torque uphill situations.... just like a wheels up launch.

[mag2555]

I think the only thing and the best thing you can do is to install a duel oil filter set up with a bypass oil cooler.

Try not to use any stainless steel hose ends of more then 45 degree's during the install.

[mag2555]

To detail my reply better, the use of two oil filters ( especially 2 QT filters) will more then make up for any pressure or volume loss incurred by having to run added oil line lenght!