Question for the FE know it alls

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Tom Kirkham

The oil drain back holes in the heads (E-brock included) need help...

So does my driving!

David

[aviaid]

David, I am sure your driving is fine.

I agree on the need for a dry sump system in most cars. Relative to a good quality wet sump system they are complex, expensive, intrusive and certainly heavier. And the horsepower benefits tend to be over-rated.

The FE is a remarkably frugal engine when it comes to oil usage. Even an aluminum engine should only run 8-9 GPM at temperature. The key in a wet sump is sufficient oil in the sump. The proper amount of oil in the system is not an arbitrary number that fills the pan to the underside of the hard tray, but that is not a bad place to start. The right amount is that which maintains oil pressure, but does not induce the carryover of oil out the breather system. This will tend to be more than the rated pan capacity, maybe 1 or 1.5 qts more. As the engine runs oil circulates through the engine in a continuous flow. The harder the engine is run, the more oil in circulation in the engine. This reduces the amount in the sump. The cylinder heads and the valley tend to pool the most oil, so if drainbacks are limited or restricted, this can have an impact on the efficiency of oil return. Just be glad it's not a Chrysler Hemi.

So overfilling the pan a little for track events raises the effective level in the sump during track time. The key is 'a little'. Baffled vents and proper location of breather outlets is the difference between being able to tell oil in suspension in the engine due to the reciprocating assembly contacting the oil in the sump and splash from lifters, rocker arms and pushrods. And a firewall mounted breather can taking air out from the lifter valley with a drain back to the 5/8" tube in the right front corner of the pan is a good way to insure you don't 'lose' the oil that does come out of the engine.

The most severe test is typically during sustained high rpm operation. Crankcase pressure tends to keep oil from returning to the sump as efficiently as during normal operation. But even short periods of off-throttle breathing of the engine as on most road courses returns oil to the sump very quickly.

[Jac Mac]

Im a little late for this thread, but want to add a couple of thoughts/ideas.
As well as taking the breathers of the valley plate I have found that the rocker covers should have the breather hoses fitted on their respective inboard sides between the pushrod pairs of cyls 1/2 or 3/4 and 5/6 or 7/8.
I have found that these points are the least likely to be covered by any oil surge during cornering etc.
On the Fords with front Dizzy I usually plumb hoses from the 3/4 & 7/8 areas into the catch tank. This catch tank is either fitted with breathers & pcv for wet sump, or in a dry sump referenced back to the Tank & Breathers. In addition to this the catch tank is fitted with a drain back line that fits to the adaptor on the block where the factory oil filter mounted. The adaptor is drilled at this point to match what was the original oil pressure drilling from the standard oil pump which is no longer used. As the front crank counterweight spins in close proximity to this area it creates a low pressure area & draws any oil that may have reached the catch tank back into the pan . Since using this system oil loss from the breathers or overboard has been virtually nil since the catch tank never really gets the chance to have any large amount of oil accumulate.
This system could also be used in a wet sump system with external pump/remote filter setup.