Quote:
Originally Posted by RICK LAKE
mjhcobra There have been some questionable testing done. On certain motor windage trays really help. In other cases no. Hemi's and FE motors have long side walls where the crank shaft spins and depending on what you are doing with the car, the crank will not whip up the oil like other motors. I do know this that solid lifter and solid rollers need all the oil spray they can get. This is the contact point between the bottom of a flat tappet or roller and camshaft contact spot. New solid lifters, (non roller) now have small holes of .010"-.015" for oiling of the contact location. This extends the life of both surfaces. I used to run solids in other motors and 10-15K miles and the wear was showing and the camshaft had wear issues. We also ran a higher valve lash above spec. This also increases wear at idle. If you are running a canton diamond windage tray, it works more like a scraper and I use this. SIDE note, make sure you can rotate the crank shaft 360 degrees and not hit the windage tray. Mine did and had to be modified. If you are running a roller lifter you can cheat the control of oil spray, flat tappets,I wouldn't. Stroker motor would need to be checked too.
1/4" to 3/8" clearance for pickup is good. I also tack weld the tube to the oil pump. It's a safety issue to protect a $10,000 motor. If you are going to race, pull the oil pump and safety wire the 4 bolts on the bottom of the pump. Also Over fill the motor 1quart of oil. This stops any starvation of the oil getting back to the pan. The oil returns are slow in and FE motor and this helps. It may leak from the rear main seal or may not. Also make sure your dipstick is reading the correct oil level.
Do you have any oiling modes done to the motor?? Mostly the adding of limiters to the heads for the rocker oiling and valve spring cooling. I know some of the guys are running a .060" oriface in both heads. I use a .080" to be safe. It fills the heads with oil and helps cool the valve springs and rockers. Easy way is to add allen screw into the supply hole in the head, tap head, drill hole in middle of screw and inset. Make sure it clears the bolt for the shafts and use the correct bolt or stud for the supply hole.
What oil pump are you running. I would reccomend an HVHP pump with a min of 60# spring. I like 80# better. I race and use #100 psi spring. 15 years of racing and no failures to bottom end of motor. IMO the most important thing is not let the motor idle for long and have a min of 30# of pressure at idle. There is a 10-20 psi loss of pressure from the front of the motor to the back of the motor.
Side notes, if you are running an oiler cooler, add an accusump to the motor. You can use it as both a preoiler before starting the motor,( 85% of motor wear happens on starting a motor and waiting for oil pressure to build ) and if running high "G" turns help maintain oil pressure when the oil is slow to return to the oil pan. This is also the reason for running 1 quart over full. You can use a manual valve or go electrical. Good luck. Rick L. |
All of this is very relative, depending on the application, type of racing, what parts are being used, etc. There are no absolutes for anything.
The amount of oil to the top of the engine will depend on how the rockers are oiled and what lifters are used. Most of your FE race setups are now pushrod oiled. To go along with that, most of your good solid roller lifters are beyond edge orifice oiling, meaning that they won't pass a lot of oil up to the valvetrain unless modified. If the engine is going in a street car or a road race engine, I will take a Dremel and connect the orifice to the band with a small channel so that they will pass more oil. On drag race engines or street/strip deals, I will leave them alone. You'd be surprised at how much oil gets to the top, even without any modification.
With the bushed lifters, I wouldn't mind for the engine to idle all day long. I tell my customers to idle the engines at around 1200. With pressure fed bushed lifters, the life is much longer than the lifters from 10 years ago.
On engines that feed through the head, I use a .070" restrictor in the head.
You do not need a ton of oil pressure, even racing. I can show you some pictures of some Cleveland rod bearings that went through a season of being drag raced every weekend, with 130 degree water temp, leaving at 5500 and shifting at sometimes 7600 rpm....with a .0025" rod bearing clearance. The engine showed 50 pounds of oil pressure at the rear....probably about 60-65 at the front. The bearings still had my bore mic marks in them.
I like to safety wire the 4 bolts on the pump as well. Actually, I buy them from Doug Garifo, and they are already safety wired and everything is moly coated. As for the pickup, if it's not a Cleveland or a Chevy, 2 bolts with lock washers and Loctite is more than sufficient. WOT oil pressure at 7000-7500 is usually no more than 80 psi tops. The pressure at idle depends on what rpm it idles at.
No need in running an extra quart unless a factory pan...most aftermarket pans are at least 8-9 quart capacity. On my factory 428CJ engines, using factory pans with windage tray, HV pumps, and factory heads, I do run an extra quart and I see oil pressure go up all the way to the top of a dyno pull...no loss at all. But that would be a 5 quart pan with a quart in the filter and an extra quart....so only 7 quarts total. I do like the Accusumps...