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69 Oil Pan Soap Opera

I bought a 427 on Ebay from AR Racing Engines in VA. I had read some reviews on them and most seemed positive. The engine and 69 Camaro were brought to a local mechanic. After the engine was in, he told me that it seemed to run a little hot and sometimes the oil pressure would be very low after you ran it for a while and were at idle. He said to try it out for a while and see. After I drove it home, I could see that the oil pressure dropped to 5 psi and the temperature went to 215. I called AR Racing and the only answer I got (said in a deep southern drawl was……20w-50…). I tried 20w-50 and it still ran hot and the lowest oil pressure was about 8 psi. I picked up a new oil pump from Summit and spent at least 10 hours getting the engine up high enough to get the oil pan out (picking the engine up from the bottom).

After I got the oil pan out…..anyone care to guess what I found at the bottom?



The trap door had fallen off and was being sucked up against the pickup. Also, it looks like something was hitting on the oil pump pickup.



I only drove it twice, so hopefully no damage has been done to the engine. The oil pan has no markings on it so I don’t know who made it. The company that made it, made a true piece of junk.

That's nuts, that's the problem with all the POS parts on the market now, knock off crap from China, it may look the same or similar to the brand name more costly part but it definitely is not.

I don't think the pick up was hitting anything, I think that is from Bubba hamfist hitting it with a hammer or mallet to drive the pick up into the pump when installing it, look at the location of the dent, right about the leverage point to drive the pick up on. I'm not impressed but it's probably not going to hurt anything.

Look closely at the oil and see if there is much metalic material in it, cut apart the oil filter if possible and look for metal, larger flakes some small flakes are normal, but I doubt you hurt the motor since it probably never fully blocked the pick up off. Good thing you looked for the problem instead of letting it go!

I'm with Sean on the pick up. I don't think anything even swings that low that it could hit and it is in the right spot to drive it in.

The pickup slides in and out of the pump body easily. It is held in by a single screw on a slotted tab. Maybe he hammered it trying to move it over a little?



I filtered the oil that was in the bottom of the pan through a paper towel and it looked clean. There were a couple of very small pieces that looked like gasket material. The oil filter went into the garbage a couple of days ago. I should have checked it.

I hope nobody else has to go through this, but I would guess there were hundreds or thousands of these crap pans made.

David once you have the oil pump pickup set into the correct position have the tube tack welded to the oil pump so it wont fall out on ya.
cheap chinese oil pan will give you headaches all the time!
buy a quality pan!
also the redneck that told you 20/50 is an ass
im betting there can be some clearance issues in the motor hence thats why he said run thicker oil.
mine runs 5w 20 at 50 psi at idle

Sean & Jeff, I am clear now……the pickup was not going in smoothly (a burr or something was hanging it up) so he whacked it with a hammer to drive it in.

Dawg, For welding, the pickup tube does not look like very thick. Weld the tube to the casting?

For oil, I was going to try running 10w-40.

David all you need is a good tack weld. Some guys will use a piece of clay in the pan to set the depth before tacking it in. It's just insurance because as you know by now dropping the pan is a drag.

hmm someone already mentioned about the clay lol.
also the tack weld to hold the pick up tube in place
just 2 little tacks is all it takes.
between the tube and pump casting.
trust me if you dont do that the tube can fall out later.
dry fit the tube on the pump inplace and get the height correct with the clay.
then mark the tube and casting with an alignment mark with a sharpy.
(incase tube falls out before tacking inplace)
2 small tacks between tube and casting.
then try and pull it out after welding.
put pump and attached pick up tube inplace.
put pan back on.
torque to spec.
if ya need torque wrench just ask!
if ya need it tacked on just bring it over ill do it for ya.

Dawg,
I will take you up on your welding offer. My welding looks like a blind man did it.

I can't get the pickup to budge though. It is very tight.

This is the one I bought: http://www.summitracing.com/search/?keyword=nal-12555167&dds=1

David

im no welding piccasso either but pretty welds dont mean they are good!
its all about penetration!
kurt can weld it too.
he is much closer and it only takes a second to do 2 tack welds.
he will do it for free aswell im sure.