OEM 3/4 WINDAGE TRAY OK WITH WARRIOR 4 BOLT MAINS CAPS?
 

MY 455, WHO SOMEONE ELSE BUILT PREVIOUS TO ME, HAS WARRIOR 4 BOLT MAIN CAPS, 74' SD RODS.

I YANKED THE ENGINE TO INSPECT, ETC, WHEN I REMOVED THE PAN, FOUND THE OEM 3/4 WINDAGE TRAY CRACKED IN TWO PIECES ALONG THE LEFT UPPER EDGE, THE PRESS-IN DIPSTICK TUBE & CRACKED DIPSTICK WERE ALSO FOUND IN THE PAN!! IS THE OEM 3/4 WINDAGE TRAY OK FOR THE WARRIOR 4 BOLT CAPS OR IS THERE A BETTER ALTERNATIVE FOR CLEARANCE?

THE TRAY WAS SHIMMED ABOUT 1/8" OFF THE CAPS, I CAN SHIM IT FURTHER, ABOUT 3/8" OFF THE CAPS.

BYT, ALL WINDAGE NUTS WERE TIGHT !

THANKS!:usa2:

Are you wondering if the main caps caused the problem?

The stock windage tray has a habit of breaking with exuberant use. :D

There are threads here on the windage tray breakage.

:)

Agreed with John. Those things are OLD. Metal fatigue has taken its toll. And the full-length ones are just as bad, if not worse.

Pacific Performance has a very nice duplicate of the original, but it's 50% thicker and not 40 years old.

For a really good upgrade, the Milodon tray/pan/pickup system is pretty tough to beat. I've been told the Canton is "just as good", but not IMO. The ones I've installed had fitment problems and are a bit flimsy compared to the Milodon.

Jim

I'm with Mr P-Body.
Like the Milodon's better. Especially the new one.

Throw the tray in the garbage, don't bother with one.

Spend your money somewhere else, like on heads.

That depends on the specific OE tray your comparing it too... ;)

Food for thought.

Standard OE trays are .035" thick (20 ga.).
This is both the 3/4 and the full length trays.

The "5" factory trays are slightly thicker than those,these were the 455 cid trays.
These trays are only available in the 3/4's configuration.
They are .047" thick (18 ga.).

The aftermarket trays like the PPR tray are usually stated as .053" thick (17 ga. IIRC).

In percentages,the "Std" tray is appx. 66% of the aftermarket tray,thus the aftermarket tray is around 44% thicker than those.

And the "5" tray is appx. 88% of the aftermarket tray,thus the aftermarket tray is around 22% thicker than those.

In my experience,the thinner OE trays are much more failure prone than any of the others,also the failures almost always start along the scraper portion,and then "spread out" from there,so many who use those OE trays elect to remove the scraper portion as SOP and nip that problem area in the bud as they say.

And I fully agree these sheetmetal stampings do not necessarily improve with age like a fine vintage wine or such,so the new aftermarket trays make a ton of sense from that standpoint alone,that is if you choose to run a tray at all.

HTH.

Ditto to grnmstr. Throw it in the trash and run wthout it. You won't notice any difference in et. You've personally seen what happens to them. Imagine if one of those pieces got hung up between a rod and the block. I've personally had that happen too. Since then I'm windage tray free.

Take a file to it...
 

OEM trays are fine, as long as you make it fit well. Dont expect it to fit well on its own the way GM made it, you need to massage it. I normally shim mine with hardened washers to assure the tray does not contact anything...

Every tray I have ever had was stress cracked when it was manufactured. All you have to do is open up the inside radius of all the stamped openings. Open them far enough to remove the stressed metal, and then burnish it smooth...

I would not be surprised if the new ones show evidence of stressed metal too, any sheet metal part getting stamped during the manufacturing process is getting stretched (stressed). However the extra thickness of the new sheet metal trays will provide added strength to resist cracking...

Most importantly with a factory stamped tray, you have to ensure it fits well, without bending (stressing) it as it gets tightened down. I don’t care how thick the sheet metal is, if you stress sheet metal and expose it to vibrations, its going to crack…

PPR Tomahawk Windage Tray
 

http://www.pacificperformanceracing....windage-sm.gif

For most applications the Pacific Performance Racing Tomahawk windage tray is the best available option...and at $79.95 more than 1,000 trays have been sold in the last 1 1/2 years.

You can do without one but you cannot do better. It is THICKER than stock and is CAD plated.

There is a Tomahawk windage tray tucked nicely under my Milodon oil pan (in my sig pic).