Modified oiling for stock-type BB Mopar pan

[BradH]

Between the “Stock Eliminator Secrets” and a couple of other recent threads, I thought it might be of interest to show what I put together to upgrade the oil system during the last build for my street/strip 440 Challenger.

What I ran before that pushed my 3750# Challenger into the mid-10s was the standard Street Hemi replica pan w/ an OEM-type windage tray modified to have some additional drainage louvers, and a 1/2" OEM-type pickup. Pretty basic stuff, really.

However, I'll be the first to admit that's an unsophisticated oil system for a 600+ HP engine and was looking to improve it while staying w/ a simple(r) low-profile system, rather than start fearing every parking lot speed bump crushing a deeper sump pan.

So I...
1. Got a Milodon Street Hemi replica pan because it's made better than the spot-welded POS that MP sells

2. Got an Ishara-Johnson crank scraper to help strip oil off the crank and keep it down in the bottom end

3. Got a full-length louvered windage tray to replace my home-louvered OEM tray

4. Added perimeter oil drainage passages to the windage try that are already present in the I-J crank scraper; also added a few more to the scraper than it came with, since I thought there was room for improvement in helping drain oil that collected on the edge of the block rather than going down into the windage tray

5. Added more louvers to the windage tray where I thought it made sense, primarily to give the oil coming back down from the crank scraper an exit path

Then I looked at a whole bunch of pans for different engines and saw some features which I decided could be of help w/ this OEM-type design. I made poster board templates for:
-> a larger accel / decel baffle over the open center sump area to provide more coverage of the sump during hard g-forces baffle and…
-> drainage dams to help channel the oil being pulled off by the windage tray back towards the center sump (inspired by some BMW oil pan pictures I saw)

Mocked 'em up to make sure the windage tray would still be able to fit properly in the pan, and took the pan, templates, and windage tray to a local shop to fabricate & install the pieces based on the templates. Their shop foreman (who happens to run an Outlaw 10.5 truck) looked over what I'd proposed and said: “No problem, I can do this.”

Putting 6 qts in the empty pan resulted in the oil level being ABOVE the factory baffle level by a good bit. However, I knew that some amount would be left circulating in the engine after starting it, plus if the 7th quart is captured in the filter, then I'd expect it should drop down at least close to the baffle level. The plan is still to run it w/ 6 qts + 1 in the filter at this point.

All of this is in the hope of ending up w/ a more efficient oiling system that still uses an OEM-type low-profile pan. Only time will tell how it does at keeping the oil under control better on the track, but it showed a stable 60+ psi on the engine dyno during pulls from 3500 - 7200.

Yes, I'll post some pictures, but they’re on another device which I’ll switch to shortly.

[BradH]

Old pan: MP Street Hemi replica (unmodified)

[BradH]

Modified Milodon Street Hemi pan shown here. Standard baffling is basically (not exactly) the same as the MP piece, so the additional sump cover and drainage dams stand out pretty clearly.

[BradH]

OEM-type windage tray to which I added some louvres.

[BradH]

Milodon-type windage tray to which I added perimeter drainage holes matching the I-J crank scraper.

[BradH]

I-J crank scraper mocked up on block.

[BradH]

Tray mocked up in pan, and scraper on tray mocked up in pan.

7480950-Oilpanupgrade023.jpg

7480952-Oilpanupgrade025.jpg

7480955-Oilpanupgrade027.jpg

[BradH]

A less-than-focused picture that shows the profiling I did to the leading edges of the Eagle crank 'cuz the original "square as a brick" corners didn't sit well with me.

[Geoff2]

I never liked the convoluted oil inlet path on the BB Mopars; especially the 90* holes that intersect in the block. Pretty much impossible to de-burr/smooth that intersection.

I braze a 1.5"long, 3/4" ID tube into the feed side of the pump, facing the rear of the engine. I neck the tube down to an oval shape where it fits into the pump body. Pickup is brazed/welded into the side of the oil pan. A short run of 3/4" hose runs from p/up to pump fitting in a gentle sweeping bend. Just hose clamps used to secure hose, as it is under suction, not high pressure.

[BradH]

I didn't make any changes as you described above, but I did spend some time cleaning up the passages and entry / exit points of the oil pump housing. If I took any pics of that work, I've probably lost track of them.

[rebelrouser]

looks like some nice work. I have a 540 BBM, uses a world products aluminum block so it has priority oiling which helps a bunch. I used one of the mopar performance windage trays similar to the one you used, I simply cut out a section of the louvers and used teflon screen in their place. I never went to the effort to build a scraper, as I wondered with the sides of the block being so close to the crank, if it would really help.
I use one of the old school deep pans with the tie rod passing through it, and a swinging pickup in the oil pan with an external line plumbed to the pump. 10 quarts of oil, and it still stays a good distance from the crankshaft.
What kind of pump and oil pressure do you run? I installed an adjustable pressure relief valve so it is easy to adjust. I used a standard Melling high volume pump, and when I fired it the first time, it had some much pressure it broke the manual oil gauge on the dyno. I have it dialed back now so it runs about 80 psi cold and 50 psi with some heat in it.

[BradH]

Melling HV pump; can't remember at the moment if I switched bypass springs to a lighter one than what it came with. I have the Milodon externally-adjustable spring setup, but haven't bothered remove it from the packaging at this point.

With Brad Penn 30 wt break-in oil, it was 60+ psi hot... don't recall what it was cold. I used to run 20w50, but am dropping down to 15w40 since it's going to see more heat on the street than on the dyno.