[The Jury]

One of the main projects on my winter list is an oil pan swap on my 455. I currently have a Moroso 8 qt pan on the car. Would be a great pan, however my car has been lowered and with the pan hanging below the crossmember, we're one good bump from disaster. So I'm getting ready to make a choice, do I go with the Canton 15-400 which has the side pouch, but also hangs an inch deeper than a stock pan, or do we go back to stock strictly for the clearance issues. I also understand that most of the Canton pans need to be massaged a bit, plus have the hole drilled for the stock dip stick. Anyone with the 15-400 pan that can tell me about the cross member clearance or thoughts on going back to a stock pan for a car that has been 95% street since built. Car is a 68 lemans.

Thanks,
Derek

[b-man]

Put a stock '73 and later baffled pan in it.

Have used them on the street on several cars and on a low-12 second 455 bracket car with absolutely no oiling-related issues.

Always added a copy of the H-O Racing trap door/baffle mod, so the oil pressure stays constant on hard right turns: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=609229

[455Darren]

I have the Canton Road Race pan on my '70 GTO. Fit good, but the rear pan rubber gasket has to be worked to fit and hold in place. Lucky to have figured out a hole has to be drilled in the baffle for the dipstick. Did some Autocrossing with no oil pressure issues.

[Garry Sr]

You may want to take a look at the Milodon 31660. No kickouts and holds 6 qts. Pan depth is 7.750

[Tim Corcoran]

The factory baffled pan is all you need and no reason to mess with anything else as you won't gain anything except you have to put in more oil for each oil change.

[The Jury]

The stock pan with the baffle looks like a good solution. Somehow I'm finding that more complex or "upgraded" is not always better. Thanks all for the advice so far. If anyone has something to add please chime in. If someone has a clean pan with the baffle that they would like to sell, please let me know. Should also ask is the BOP one piece rubber gasket a good solution for getting the pan to seal up the first time?

[Don 79 TA]

i agree with the above, street driving a lowered car, definitely stick with the stock or one that doesn't hang down
no use adding the risk of something happening while on the road

i've seen some cars with pans that looked like 1" from the ground and thought how the hell are they driving without wiping that pan out
at least in this area i wouldn't chance it, nor would i back in NY with all the lovely pot holes/dips/bumps/etc

[HWYSTR455]

68 A-body? What kind of driving do you do?

The Milodon and that Canton road race pans don't hang below the cross member, and control oil well. If you take an exit ramp fast with a factory pan, you will know why you NEED a pan that controls oil.

Personally, I would never put a factory pan back on unless you want to go factory for look/resto. You can paint either pan to look more factory, and would take a closer look for others to notice.

I've never had an issue with the Milodon or Canton pans sealing using the cork rear cap gasket and the regular pan rail gaskets.


.

[Skip Fix]

I'll agree with the last statement any spriited driving you will need some oil control. I used an HO pan autocrossing OK except a HARD stop box -lifters ticked so obviously starved for oil. Milodon road race pan hard braking at the end of the drag strip to make the first turn oil pressure dropped way down.

My Canton has not done that and I think has good baffling. The second gen is the same depth as a stock pan. The GTO pan is maybe 1" deeper but a shorter length sump to clear the crossmember.

[428goat]

I had a Milodon and the drain plug always leaked a little of course it was after the engine was in the car. I tried all different plug gaskets. When I got around to putting a stock pan on I took a good look at the drain plug and I could see that it was not flush with the pan when screwed in. The nut welded inside was welded on at a angle so the plug screwed in at a angle. Another guy I know had the same problem. He went back to a stock pan also. Maybe they are better now.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by b-man

Put a stock '73 and later baffled pan in it.

Have used them on the street on several cars and on a low-12 second 455 bracket car with absolutely no oiling-related issues.

Always added a copy of the H-O Racing trap door/baffle mod, so the oil pressure stays constant on hard right turns: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=609229

I REALLY like Bart's modded pan!

The only change I would make if also doing acceleration runs would be to put a 1/2" strip of metal across the back on the pan with the non welded edge pointing downward at 30 degrees. This way it oil that "climbs the pan wall" will be turned back to the center of the sump.

Tom V.

[Skip Fix]

Tom Bart's picture is what the HO pan was/is. As you can see to the passenger side nothing to sop the il from going up in a hard stop. I had planned to add a little more wall around to that side and maybe another trap door in front all wrapped tight around a factory pickup-or use the Canton second gen pickup that is smaller so you could add the extra wall a little back for the trap door. Ihave that pan on the 78's original motor on the stand now and a copy I made stealing two trap doors for a SBC Vette pan in the 81 TA .

Canton used to sell the trap doors separately.