crushed oilpan

[Jakter]

I was jacking up a car on that cross member in front of the oil pan when the jack slipped and crushed the oil pan in exactly the same place but far worse.

The oil pick up tube on mine was a heavy gauge tube that I was able to bend back into position and it looked like nothing happened to it.
I knocked the pan back into shape as best I could and welded up a few tears in it and put it back together the same day.

 

[swisherred]

I have some options available...just waiting till I can get it out.

 

[GJS]

Figure I'd post a pic of it too...

View attachment 261945

Mine had no hole but it was easily that dented. I took it out with the tip of a wooden baseball bat and a rubber mallet.

 

[Nadir Point]

The big issue with B/RB oil pans was capacity vs/drainback rate. Mikes66 touched on that with the windage tray comment. Unfortunately that just made the problem worse for the HP engines coming equipped with it from the factory. People just tooling around normally never saw it, but it killed alot of engines on the track. An oil starvation issue caused by a combination of high RPM and hard acceleration often uncovered the pump pickup. I tested and confirmed this behavior on my '71 TnT. Any time the oil level was at or below the full mark, it dropped oil pressure about 10 seconds into a standing start hard pull. The easy way most dealt with it was over-filling them. The best way was installing a higher-capacity oil pan with appropriate-length pickup tube.

 

[stubs300]

I have some options available...just waiting till I can get it out.

Having options is always good.

 

[PontiacJim]

The factory did use a windage tray on its GTO and high-performance engines to keep the crank from whipping up oil out of the pan sump, but, the crank also turns so fast that the centrifugal force slings the oil down into the pan and splashes with the oil and creates air bubbles. The windage tray keeps the oil from splashing into the pan and enables the oil pump to pick up oil rather than any air.

The trick with these was to open up the smaller factory drain holes and add another for faster oil return to the pan.

The later 1976 Trans-Am with the T/A 6.6 400CI developed oil starvation problems. Oil starvation became a problem on hard grabbing turns and acceleration for a couple of reasons. A factory memo went out - The cure was to replace the factory installed 40PSI oil pump (which was used on low-performance engines in the 1960's era) with the earlier hi-perf engine 60PSI oil pump and with this install the earlier type 1973 oil pan with baffle.

The use of an oil pan baffle is a good idea for any hard accelerating car or if you like to do some hard cornering. It does not have to be fancy like a racing pan having baffles and trap doors to keep oil in the pan.

 

[Joseph James]

Mine was crushed. Used a 2x4 about six inches long or so. Tapped the 2 by with a hammer. Now you can't tell it was ever damaged.