The full length trays do tend to crack in race type engines.
we reinforced them at the thin points at the louvers to reduce this tendancy.OMT was correct in his assumption that the 4/5 tray is thicker.the full length is.040" and the 4/5 is .050".Most 4/5 trays are spaced for the 455 crank(thicker pad).Our Super Comp Fiat once slowed down during eliminations and no attempts at re tuning would bring it back.
After pulling the Pan(post race)we found the tray-broken off -at the bottom of the pan.it cost us about 2 tenths and the race.REplaced the tray and the 2 tenths came back.
we also experimented with mesh trays on the 74 S/S T/A.Total disaster!in about 5 runs we started to get a rod knock!
the teardown wasn't pretty.The mains had been starved for oil!! We surmised that the mesh tray had allowed the oil in the pan to slosh thru it on the launch and stay in a oil cloud around the crank--not returning to the oil pump pickup.The mesh pans do well on the dyno but thats not what we drive.
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GOOD IDEAS ARE OFTEN FOUND ABANDONED IN THE DUST OF PROCRASTINATION
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