Making a replica Group A oil pan

[Stiggy Pop]

Last year I bought a hinged oil pan baffle box from Ian, this year I had some time to kill so I decided to try to build a replica Group A oil pan to use it in. I'm not solving any problem I've had, just wanted to give it a try, add some oil capacity and hopefully net some potential improvements.

I've seen some people add "bump outs" on one side near the pickup, but couldn't find many examples of a real flat bottom b230 pan. I pretty much went from/copied these two that I could find from back in the day.

this one made by Sten Parner I think



and this one I don't really know the pedigree of (actual group a?)




I mocked up my version of these in cardboard



I cut pretty much the entire hump off of the pan (this ended up being the practice-pan)



the basic idea mocked up at the angle it sits in the car (precision wood bucks)



The cardboard templates ended up being minimally useful. I found that because of the multiple curves it felt more like trying to build a custom gas tank for a chopper. Lots of bending in the brake, checking, bending again, tweaking with a hammer and dolly etc. It took a lot of time but I was able to get a very close fit all the way around. I used 14 gauge steel which was pretty close to the same thickness as the stock material.

I made the "side panels" tall, then tacked them in place. I mocked it up again at the appropriate angle for the engine slant then shot a laser level at it to draw a horizontal line all the way around. I set the depth based on the stock drain plug location (lowest part of the stock pan)



trimmed up and made a filler piece made for the front.





I made relief cuts in the remaining flange of the stock pan material and folded it over against the new walls and tacked it together. Probably unnecessary but felt cleaner.



baffle box location was mocked up in the car. I drilled out the stock drain plug fitting and welded it onto my bottom plate.



Went through and finish welded it. I'm a novice tig welder but was happy I got it together and it didn't leak. I was worried about the flange of the pan warping during welding, so my Dad made me this plywood torque plate.







Last of many test fits into the car. It pretty much hits perfect, bottom is parallel to the ground and up above the bottom plane of the cross member.



I wasn't really sure what to do with the tray, so I kinda split the difference between the two examples I had to copy



I sent the finished product off to be powder coated and it came back looking pretty good for something built in the basement.









The new pan picked up ~2quarts in total volume compared to a stock pan (as measured by filling it to the flange. 7 vs 9qts), which is a good thing.

[OldCarNewTricks]

Very cool! What do you plan to do with the motor that that goes to?

[Radtap]

Absolutely useless in my application but I want one

[HiSPL]

Thats great work!

I certainly wouldn't mind an extra quart or two of oil even in a street car.....

[Stiggy Pop]

thanks guys!

Originally Posted by OldCarNewTricks

Very cool! What do you plan to do with the motor that that goes to?

Make a bunch of power and drive it around fast, occasional track days at Lime Rock.. nothing crazy. This was definitely more of a "I wonder if I could do this" project vs. something I had a real hard need for.

[Cwazywazy]

Ooh, nice work. Definitely good insurance to have something like that. So far I've gotten away with overfilling my engine by half a quart, I've seen my oil pressure hit 0 mid-corner with it filled just to the full line.

[oldschoolvolvo]

nice work.
powder coat looks great!

[CAPT_BLOTTO]

Woah. That's a great job fabbing that with all the curves. Impressive.

[dl242gt]

Very nice work on that oil pan. As well built as the rest of the car is.

[Harlard]

Great prototype. Now sell it to me so you can redo it with all the things that made you unhappy about this one, addressed.

[mikep]

Beauty.

[Stiggy Pop]

Originally Posted by CAPT_BLOTTO

Woah. That's a great job fabbing that with all the curves. Impressive.

appreciate this cause I underestimated how fiddly it would be. Also don't know if I clearly admitted it basically took two tries, the first one I ended up cutting too low somehow and didn't have enough depth under the pickup.

Originally Posted by Harlard

Great prototype. Now sell it to me so you can redo it with all the things that made you unhappy about this one, addressed.

$1,200 and I'm not even joking

Originally Posted by mikep

Beauty.

thanks, and thank you for your old tyme posts on baffled oil pans, it's where I found the pictures!

[klr142]

I wouldn't put a price on it until you test it! But it looks sweet. We had issues running baffle boxes in the past, but not with the factory pan as long as you ran it overfilled a bit. Sadly, overfilled is not best for power or necessarily keeping oil in the engine(but it's been fine in that regard for us in an N/A application with the oil trap vented to atmosphere, basically).

I think a good bit of the issue is with oil sloshing FORWARD for us after hard braking when the oil level gets low because there's no cover over the front of the pan. Adding a cover there is important. I can share pictures of what Erland Cox of Topplocksverkstan does when I have a chance later.

We just made a somewhat similar pan for our race car but did a triangle shaped baffle box and also didn't get around to finishing up the cover for the front section. Guess what, we still had oil pressure problems.

[mikep]

Yep, ledges all around for anti-climb are good.
I want to do a test on windage trays.
I spent way too long on drilling holes in one, because i couldnt get anyone to punch louvers in 1999. Installed it, then found some nice wire cloth. Then i saw oil bath machining that used antisplash metal mesh layers. The biggest pieces i found are too small. And it takes time.

[CaseyHooligan]

OMG, Take my money!
Seriously, I love this. I want this...

[SkeTchy-MechAniC]

Really nicely done! Seems like it's been sandblasted. Please be sure that it's 100% clean inside, underneath the edges etc. We've had some experience with a customer that had his valve covers sandblasted & powdercoated. Turned out to be an expensive joke