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Posted: Wed May 11, 05 7:38 pm
by Alex
No extra gasket on a small block, it is held by the main cap pedestals
Posted: Wed May 11, 05 8:00 pm
by Dave-R
Oh yeah! I remember that now. I had forgotten. 16 years since i did any serious work on a small block now!

Posted: Wed May 11, 05 8:10 pm
by Anonymous
Cheers,i'll bolt mine on then!
Posted: Wed May 11, 05 8:27 pm
by Alex
Watch the clearances between the crank throws and the tray and the tray and the sump, it can hit both.
Check with the sump pressed down and spin the crank before you bolt it up.
Posted: Wed May 11, 05 9:47 pm
by Anonymous
Actually Alex, i'llprobably have a further query. I bought the windage tray, mains bolts and hardware asa kit off Duncan (no instructions) Its not clear what the large washers/spacers(?) are for as they dont fit over the mains bolts.
Posted: Wed May 11, 05 11:02 pm
by Alex
The bolts go in with no washers mate, I think the washers are spacers if you need them.
Posted: Thu May 12, 05 7:01 pm
by Anonymous
Thanks Alex, that makes sense.
Posted: Fri May 13, 05 7:18 pm
by MrNorm
Don't forget too that you don't drive a car stationary - when you accelerate or turn that oil is sloshing around in the sump and therefore can indeed get hit by the crank, hence the knifedging to minimise the drag.
That's really the reason for a deep sump oil pan - not to hold more oil but to move the oil further away from the crank. Once it dips in you get a windage cloud as Dave described, like a rope twisted around the crank, that costs horsepower and increases crank inertia (hurts revability

).
So a smart move is to baffle the sump for a start - cheap and easy. Racing pans do this. you could get pretty fancy with swinging trap doors etc, I will just make a simple one for the deep sump oilpan I built for my SB.
You can also use an accumulator to keep oil out of the pan (like a semi dry sump!), I'll be using one of them but mostly for starvation and startup protection.
I've heard mixed feedback on windage trays. It's true most people use them, but I've also heard of tests where they gained no power at all. I guess it depends on how bad the original installation was. One of my concerns is that of course you have oil draining back into the sump and if you are not careful (hi vol pump and small resrtictions in the windage tray) you can actually trap oil in the tray and make things worse. So as mentioned if you are using one I would open up the louvres, especially on a stroker where the crank gets closer to the tray.
I like the idea of a crank scraper too. I'll be using one of those for sure, I'm still thinking about the windage tray. It's basically a piece of sheet metal that strips the crank of any oil it picked up. Some modern engines have them built in already.