Over the last two weekends I took some time and worked on my custom oil pan for the 351W swap. As I made the mistake of going with a Girdle for my engine build up, I was not able to easily modify an explorer 302 pan (by grafting in a 351W rear main portion) nor was I able to use a 351W FRPP Mustang pan without some major re-work. The drivers side header wipes out most of the sump on the Mustang pans and the front oil pump sump is too deep to clear the rack.
This lead me to making a completely custom oil pan. I use a cheap stamped 351W truck oil pan as a starting point and cut off the drawn pan section from the mounting ring with about 1.5" side walls, then created the rest of the pan from scratch with 16ga steel, an oxy/acet torch, a mig and a tig welder - of course some hammering an cussing were also involved!
The first few pictures show some of the early stages, I wish I would have gotten some pics of just the "ring".
Checking to make sure clearance to rack, front diff, and headers
I have since steepened the wall on the rear sump to better match the collector angle and give more volume.
Here are some pictures of the oil pickup and sump locations. The pickup is ~1/4" from bottom of sump.
Here is one with it tacked and ready to be finish welded.
Here are a few "finished products." I only wish I had better skills at Tig welding to make the beads more pretty! I did do a decent job of keeping distortion out, only very minor warpage, that I was able to get out with some calibrated twisting and pounding.
Last thing to do is cut out the drain plug I put in and replace with a piece of 1/4" flat steel stock and Moroso plug. I do not feel comfortable that the surface on this pan is flat enough for the explorer plug and bung I used to seal 100%. Rather replace it now than after I spend $150 for Jet Hot coating on it!
This lead me to making a completely custom oil pan. I use a cheap stamped 351W truck oil pan as a starting point and cut off the drawn pan section from the mounting ring with about 1.5" side walls, then created the rest of the pan from scratch with 16ga steel, an oxy/acet torch, a mig and a tig welder - of course some hammering an cussing were also involved!
The first few pictures show some of the early stages, I wish I would have gotten some pics of just the "ring".
Checking to make sure clearance to rack, front diff, and headers
I have since steepened the wall on the rear sump to better match the collector angle and give more volume.
Here are some pictures of the oil pickup and sump locations. The pickup is ~1/4" from bottom of sump.
Here is one with it tacked and ready to be finish welded.
Here are a few "finished products." I only wish I had better skills at Tig welding to make the beads more pretty! I did do a decent job of keeping distortion out, only very minor warpage, that I was able to get out with some calibrated twisting and pounding.
Last thing to do is cut out the drain plug I put in and replace with a piece of 1/4" flat steel stock and Moroso plug. I do not feel comfortable that the surface on this pan is flat enough for the explorer plug and bung I used to seal 100%. Rather replace it now than after I spend $150 for Jet Hot coating on it!
Sometimes, at least.
