401 Oiling System

Just had a 401 come in yesterday for a second rebuild.  In two lifetimes the crank is still useable with standard bearings.  No oil mods in evidence.  I have used the oil line mod in the lifter valley after seeing some engines with wear at the  back rod journal in basically stock application.  Most of the valley line installations I have seen are poorly executed with restrictive brass fitting and small line size.  Performance American sells/used to sell an oil line kit that used AN fittings and -8 line.  I use two 45 degree fittings at the lifter galley instead of the single 90, but basically use the PAS kit.  

I'm going to be building an engine soon, so I've read quite a bit of stuff on this as well.  The other things I've read are to make sure that the oil passages in the timing chain set are correct (may have too much oil flow with currently available upper gears, or may have misaligned slots in the gears and minimal flow).  Also to make sure oil pump gear end clearances are correct and check for sufficient drain back clearance between timing chain cover and front of the engine.  And make a permanent spacer on the bottom of the pickup tube, some of the factory plastic spacers can break off and allow the pickup to drop down to the bottom of the oil pan.

For those wondering about a 12" x 5/16" long drill bit Lowe's has a excellent, reasonably priced unit for $4.48 that will handle the job.

Rebel Machine wrote: Additionally I like using a Mopar 340 windage tray (modified to fit the AMC V8).

Steve didn't you make a thread on modifying the Mopar windage tray one time? If so it would be interesting to bring it up again.