Extra deep oil pan - any point?

[erikgreen]

I'm about to replace an old oil pan with one in better shape. Is there any point to having one of the "expanded" oil pans with a deep sump and pickup on a boat? Any problems with the oil foaming or similar?

I was thinking of something like these:
http://www.milodon.com/oil-pans/marine-oil-pans.asp My other option would just be a standard GM oil pan, painted with underbody coating.

Erik

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

Extra capacity, slightly cooler oil.

 

[Tahorover]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

A windage tray would be a first step. My Arabian would loose 20 psi at WOT due to oil foaming. It would take over a half hour at WOT (5200 rpms)

 

[John_S]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

Yea, a windage tray if you don't already have one. If your sbc is stock or near stock, I wouldn't think it would be worth all the parts changes mentioned. (need to include a new dipstick tube if you do a suction style oil change, too) An exception might be if you do long distance runs where you have had problems with thinning oil before.

I'm not sure on the underbody coating, though. I'd be concerned that the hot oil would cause the undercoating to run/drip and might also insolate it to provide less heat transfer to the air. A good priming and painting should be fine. If you nick it on installation, you would want to touch that up.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

Okay, sounds like unless I have issues with overheating or do long high speed runs there's not a huge advantage to having a larger oil pan.

I do have a windage tray, so I'll plan on using that with a $90 replacement pan.

I may coat it with something other than underbody stuff, like coal tar epoxy. Basically keep it from rusting as long as possible. I don't know that the oil pan is meant to shed heat much.

I'm guessing an oil cooler for the engine would serve the same purpose as an extra large pan?

Erik

PS: I'm going to be using synthetic oil in this engine since I do occasionally run at high speed (4000 rpm) for a half hour at a time.

 

[Tahorover]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

I cured my foaming problem without a pan change. I went to a race style oil filter and a huge oil cooler. It added almost 3.5 qts to my system.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

You might want to ensure you have clearance for the deeper pan. On some boats the bottom of the pan is very close to the hull.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

I do have clearance, but if I didn't I think I'd go with one of the wider pans instead.

I'm sort of settled on using a normal pan now, I was just wondering if there was a longevity or other advantage to using an oversize oil pan or cooler.

Erik

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Extra deep oil pan - any point?

This is certainly a valid question and the answer is that it certainly wouldn't hurt anything. Anything you can do to keep oil temperature down is a good thing.