Oil pan question
 

I have 3 oil pans to choose from for the 461 I am building for my 70 GTO. See the attached pictures. Middle one was on the matching numbers engine. Dirty one was on a 69 YD 400 out of a Catalina that was running in the GTO. Gold is Summit stock replacement. Note the Summit has the baffle and the stock pans do not. The Summit also has the side mounted drain plug like the original. I plan on using the Summit pan unless someone knows of any clearance issues mounting in the A body chassis. Depth appears same as the stock pans. Thoughts? Concerns?

Summit.Tom

Thanks Tom!

I thought the original oil pans had the drain plug in the center! My 69 has it there and most of the service replacement pans I've seen puts the drain plug on the side. This was the way we could always tell if the pan had been replaced.

In 1970 the drain plug was moved from the front to the side. That’s why the OP mentioned the Summit pan had the same drain plug location as his 1970 GTO pan.

The 1972-1/2 and later style baffled pans (the Summit pan) won’t lose oil pressure nearly as easily as the non-baffled pans under hard braking, that was a long overdue upgrade for sure.

Agree, and any baffled pan does a better job with hard, high speed, right hand turn exit ramps. Mechanical Gages, you can see the oil pressure drop 15 psi on that type of turn (as the oil runs away from the oil pan pick-up).

Tom V.

I would use some oil resistant RTV between the pan and the cork gasket that goes over the rear main cap. Original pan had an indent to hold the cork in place where the summit pan doesn't have that feature.

baffled pan is nice. go summit

Yes, I did some research and found the original 64-69 oil pans had the center oil drain hole. As I mentioned, the service replacement pans when available had the oil drain on the side, so I thought if the drain hole wasn't in the center, the pan was replaced at some time. In these days of fraud, I've seen owners tell people about original engines that had never been touched. Then you look and see the oil drain hole on the side with 69 and earlier GTO's. Conversations get interesting after that.

Definitely the baffled pan

The drain plug threads are weak on most aftermarket stock type replacement pans. If a factory oil pan that is in good shape is available and you can clean it properly, you are always better off with that. Also the factory pan may mate properly with the rear main cap pan seal recess. The replacement pans are designed for the worse design pan seal used from approximately 71-77ish.

Clean up the stock pan, make a baffle and tack weld it in there. Not hard at all to do.

Agree 100%, I've removed several factory baffles out of damaged original oilpans & spotted them in straight '70-72 factory oilpans.

In regards to the reproduction oil pan, how many posts here on PY have addressed at least one line of repro oil pan, & the way they are formed in the front? I cant read every post, ESP in the Street Forum, but do know there have been many w clearance issues to the centerlink in certain chassis.

On the topic of oil pan gaskets, I am a big fan of ditching the cork gasket(s) and using the 1-piece steel-reinforced rubber gasket sold by Butler (LINK). It has the little tabs that fit into the rear main "hump" section of the pan as seen on the Summit pan. I installed this gasket on my engine and it has been 100% bone dry everywhere. And being steel-reinforced rubber, it should hold up better than cork over time. Still not a bad idea to use a skim coat of RTV in that location either way, though.

Right now with my Steffs pan all I have is is two of the cork gaskets side by side at the rear main area, 3M weatherstrip sealant between them and the cap and The Right Stuff on top and everywhere else with no gasket.
Double crank scrappers so did not seem like there was enough room for a gasket.
First time for me so we will see how it all seals.
BOP one piece also.

Like Ol Pinion Head said, if the front half of the Summit pan is deeper than the original pan, you might have clearance issues with the center steering link

It’s not like finding a good factory baffled pan is all that difficult, place a parts wanted ad and one will surely pop up.

Sell your non-baffled pans, I’ve sold several to guys looking for those pans to use on restorations. Straight non-rusty early oil pans sell for good money.

From experience..
Summit appears to be Miloden
The " gold dichromate " resists paint, yes even engine paint.
If you use one and want it to stay " blue" I would suggest bead blasting the bottom before you clean and paint/ use it.

Interesting. I have a nice one sitting on my shelf along with both flavors of factory windage trays. I thought all of them were basically scrap metal.