oil slingers?
 

Met a guy with a Primo '55 Chieftain. He seemed knowledgeable on Pontiacs and told me that Pontiac V8's thru '60 had an oil slinger on the crankshaft between the cam gear and the front seal. Now I just rebuilt a 1960 389 and don't remember removing one on tear down and certainly didn't install one on rebuild. And I do know what one is. I associate them with Model T's and engines with no oil pump. This is the first Pontiac I've built and am no expert but I do know there were some changes between '59 and '60, i.e. cooling flow. Did pre '60's have one? I did change the front seal to the '61 and up style lip seal. Could he have thought that the old style internal front seal housing acted as a slinger? I would think that between the timing sprocket and chain there is plenty of oil being slung. Does anyone know anything about this?

Sounds like some confusion in terms here. There were engines (not necessarily Pontiac) that did not have an oil pump but relied on the rods dipping into the oil and then slinging it around for lubrication. Not very effective and a long discarded idea. Then some had a pump and had little nozzles that shot an oil stream into a little cup to oil the rods but the mains and cam were pressure oiled. Think early Chevy Stovebolt six. But a slinger like you may be talking about would be a disc used to block oil from overwhelming a seal by giving the oil something to cling to and then be slung of by centrifugal force so very little got to the seal. I have seen those but can't remember which engines. As for Pontiac between 55 and 59 on the timing seal? Maybe, but I don't know. Pontiac shop manual for 61 does show an "oil slinger groove" in the rear main front of the rear main seal. Maybe that's what he is talking about.

1933 through 1962 (and some in 63) Pontiac 4, 6, straight and V 8 engines all used the same part number 492085 for a front crank seal. It mounted on the front of the crankshaft and rotated with the crank. It was made up of a cork seal, a metal backing for the cork seal, a spring and a backing piece for the spring that would have acted somewhat like an oil slinger.

Bill, I knew the seal was the same for all those years but I thought it changed in '61. Thanks for setting me straight. As I stated earlier, I changed mine to the later version using your fine instructions for that procedure, and I suppose the spring backing plate was what the guy was considering a slinger. Live and learn.

That's my understanding. I think that 'slingers' became obsolete with lip-type seals, like you now have.