Replacing the 440 oil pan

[patrick66]

My '66 Imperial has a dented oil pan. It's not affecting the pressure, and doesn't leak. Can the pan be replaced without having to lift the engine off the mounts? I have another correct, undamaged pan as a replacement.

Can a factory 440 windage tray be added at the same time without the hassle of raising the engine up?

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

Read the factory service manual on the BB oil pan replacement (very little mentioned in the 68 Fury manual), off the top of my head, drop the Y pipe if you have that, drop steering cross link, remove transmission inspection plate, disconnect both motor mount bolts (service manual may not say this, but instead rotate crank) carefully jack engine via crank balancer (not pulleys), drop the pan, you may have to spin crank to clear weights, and of course disconnect battery neg terminal if your scared you may come in contact with the positive on the starter, throttle & transmission linkage ignore that if mentioned in service manual, that is where the careful part of jacking comes in. Jacking the engine gives you more room to work and ease of access to do a proper scrapping of the old gasket material and re-installation speeding up the process. Of course this is all from working on a lift and if you are doing this on your back ie on the ground you may want to completely get the steering cross link out of the way to make things easier.

A windage tray is kind of moot if you don't have a baffled pan.

Also make sure you remove the oil pickup and give it a good cleaning or new replacement while your in there.
Also how's the rear main seal? (your right there) Bearing clearances? (might as well check that, your in there... LOL)


.

 

[patrick66]

She runs like a top, I'm not going to "adjust" anything that isn't amiss. I figured there was going to be a bit of removal required. Oh, fun. This might be something I wait until Fall to work on. The humidity lately has been in the 75 - 85% range, plus temps in the 90s...I don't do well with that.

My kingdom for a lift...

 

[Trace 300 Hurst]

My '66 Imperial has a dented oil pan. It's not affecting the pressure, and doesn't leak.

She runs like a top, I'm not going to "adjust" anything that isn't amiss.

Does anyone agree with me that patrick66 should consider that dent as "patina" and live with it?

 

[detmatt]

She runs like a top, I'm not going to "adjust" anything that isn't amiss. I figured there was going to be a bit of removal required. Oh, fun. This might be something I wait until Fall to work on. The humidity lately has been in the 75 - 85% range, plus temps in the 90s...I don't do well with that.

My kingdom for a lift...

Best thing since sliced bread.

 

[BigblueC]

@patrick66 if you're not having any problems and it's just aesthetic, I suggest just leaving it as is. No need to go through all of that work and potentially open a can of worms if there aren't any real issues being caused by the dented pan.

Also a windage tray really isn't necessary unless you're running in the upper RPM range. But it also won't hurt anything by adding it. Just overkill for a cruiser type engine.

 

[patrick66]

Does anyone agree with me that patrick66 should consider that dent as "patina" and live with it?

It's the knowledge that the dent is there that drives me nuts. A dented oil pan isn't exactly patina, which is a word I truly despise. Plus, I have both another pan and a new windage tray to fix it with. I've got a buddy with a shop that perhaps we can get the Imperial up in the air and take care of it. Won't be free, of course, he makes a living turning wrenches on old Mopars!

And yeah, I've thought about just leaving things as-is and drive the dogpiss out of it this Summer and Fall. Then wait till later in the year when the car is not nearly as much in use and jump after it.

I like that "no double gasket required" Summit windage tray!

 

[BigblueC]

Since you have access to a lift and you want the dent out, have you thought about trying to pull the dent with a stud welder and slide hammer? Just a thought, it might not work.

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

pitchures, pitchures, pitchures, ARE IMPORTANT! How big is the dent? Road bang or did someone 'Jack the pan'?
If the pan is jacked you want to see (measure) if your pickup is pushed up, that's very important via the FSM.

 

[patrick66]

It looks like a "jack the pan" occurrance. I'll see if i can get a pic or two and you all can see. I have good oil pressure warm and cold, so the oil pickup is doing its thing without issue.

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

It looks like a "jack the pan" occurrance. I'll see if i can get a pic or two and you all can see. I have good oil pressure warm and cold, so the oil pickup is doing its thing without issue.

Yea I'm not so sure why the FSM manual is so concerned about the bottom of the pickup being parallel and just touching bottom of pan but I guess they are worried of the pump sucking air as oil shifting front or to the rear under hard braking or acceleration. Maybe something 'bout **** floats too? Or making sure oil re-circulation comes from the very bottom to prevent sludge build up. Only a engineer would know that stuff.

.

 

[patrick66]

I know that before I installed a windage tray on my Coronet many years ago, the oil light would come on briefly, under hard cornering or deceleration.

 

[BigblueC]

That was from the oil sloshing to one side and uncovering the pick-up, which is what a baffled pan is designed for. A windage tray is designed to baffle/separate the wind from the rotating assembly and oil in the pan sump. A windage tray keeps the rotating assembly from whipping the oil up into the air, and keeping the rotating assembly out of the oil also prevents aeration.

I'm sure a windage tray can act as an oil baffle too, as was your experience, but it's primary function is to baffle/separate the high speed wind from the rotating assembly and the oil in the pan.

 

[Samplingman]

It’s not that bad of a job, I’ve done it. I used small wood blocks under the mounts to hold the engine up. The hardest part is disconnecting the Y pipe, no matter how far you drop it, it is always in the way.

 

[67valiant 100]

With the y-pipe removed, drag link dropped down, & trans inspection cover removed, a big block oil pan will literally fall out of a C-body. The only reason to jack the motor up would be for making removal of the pan bolts easier.

The Summit gasket made for an extremely easy reinstall since its ridged. No fighting to line up the gaskets bolt holes.

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

The hardest part is disconnecting the Y pipe, no matter how far you drop it, it is always in the way.

That's why (at least in the 68 Plymouth) service manual they suggest removal and is also why Chrysler uses a 'Bell Mouth' connector at the muffler end on all their exhaust systems rather than a compression 'Slip Joint' connection which is harder to separate unless you have a torch. They did the same with the bell mouth ends up at the exhaust manifold to eliminate the pesky flange gasket leaks. I think I have to throw in a 'Except HEMI' disclaimer on this one, (or the drag cars).

.

 

[marty koirtyohann]

My '66 Imperial has a dented oil pan. It's not affecting the pressure, and doesn't leak. Can the pan be replaced without having to lift the engine off the mounts? I have another correct, undamaged pan as a replacement.

Can a factory 440 windage tray be added at the same time without the hassle of raising the engine up?

maybe if u drop the drag link /center link it should come out i did it on a 72 new yorker

 

[patrick66]

I was going to take a pic of the pan last night, I'll have to do that today. My truck project has been taking up the time this last month or so.

One nice thing is that I don't have to worry about removing a "Y"-pipe, as my car has dual exhaust on it.

 

[John Kirby]

My '66 Imperial has a dented oil pan. It's not affecting the pressure, and doesn't leak. Can the pan be replaced without having to lift the engine off the mounts? I have another correct, undamaged pan as a replacement.

Can a factory 440 windage tray be added at the same time without the hassle of raising the engine up?

I 'm not sure about the Imperials but my 66 nyer went as follows:
Separate the inner tie rod on passenger side.
Separate idler arm from center link. Rotate centerlink out of the way.
remove motor mount bolts, jack up engine a few inches, stick some wood between mounts.
Now remove pan bolts and old pan, clean engine block with scraper (don't skimp here).
Reverse steps with new pan & gasket.
I suggest a cast pan if you can find one. The crappy sheet metal pans are prone to leaking at the seal. If you tighten the bolts a bit too much there is no way to fix it without removing the pan and doing some metal straightening.

I went through this with the tranny pan always leaking. Bought a cast version from Summit and never had a leak again. A bonus is it has cooling fins molded in (reduces trans temps a bit). And is deeper so it holds another couple quarts of fluid. Keeps the filter out of the gunk in the pan. It does cost more than a sheet metal pan though. I had enough of trans fluid leaking all over my garage floor. My next mod is cast valve covers for the same reason.