AMC V8 'Police' oil pan variant

The "designed for 6 quarts, Marketing said 5" ... has so often been repeated that it is now considered as fact in the AMC community.   If the design requirement was for 5 quarts to be competitive with other OEMs, why Engineering would ignore that requirement and design it for 6 makes little sense to me.   

I don't think anyone would be foolish in using the pan for endurance or heavy 8000+ RPM as is.

If any thing, the engineers at AMC made their best effort for police environment use.

So, adding 1 quart max with that pan should be just fine for track day and street usage.

Basically I have done well with my stock 304 engine and standard pan.

Believe me I ran that engine hard above 4500k rpm a lot for years on end, and never spun a bearing, but did drop a valve under a blip to decelerate on downshift, which was fixed by head replacement from the wrecking yard. Kept running hard years after until sold.

I just don't see running the big money aftermarket pans when a car is not built for competition, just for a fun driver.

IMO, the pan should do very well for most track day / daily drover cars, and should not be discounted because many who do race mostly with their cars are trying to compare with, when there is noticeably differences as to warrant use for bigger and better pans.

For my build nobody makes a pan proper for fit and clearness, so I have no choice in using my own custom design. Though I would not cut up the aforementioned pan, as it is very unique and can be used for non race builds.

sweatlock wrote: 1970Javelin wrote: How tall are the walls? Using that pan, I can see why the spec was 6qt so there is always enough oil to get over the walls. The 'walls' of the baffle are approx. 3" in height, HOWEVER, the oil doesn't need to get over them - the baffle 'leaks' through to the drain plug. I tried it by filling the pan with water and then removing the drain plug, just to confirm that any oil in the baffle would drain out.   There are 5 factory spot welds placed in an arc around the oval cutout of the baffle attaching it to the oil pan - the 'T' shaped cutout has a 'bump' in it creating a channel between the baffle and the pan to allow it to both drain and fill up.  It's hard to see in the photos but it's located at the bottom RH corner of the 'T' cutout of the second photo.

Couple of thoughts.

Edited by ccowx - Jan/01/2019 at 4:43pm

ccowx wrote: Couple of thoughts. -Yes, the stock pan does have a small-ish capacity for what it does. The issue really is that at 5 quarts, you lose 1.5+ quarts in all the passages, filter and lifters, leaving you 3.5 quarts in the pan. If you run it at 3500+ for a while, you can easily have another 1.5-2.0 quarts in the valve covers, leaving you with 1.5-2.0 in the pan, maybe less. Probably ok on an Ambassador driven conservatively, but do a sharp corner in your AMX with the oil at that level and see what happens. Now, if you consider what this all looks like if you are just above the "add" mark on the dipstick and you can see the issue. You could be running with little more than 1/2 a quart in the pan! -6 quarts actually is above the windage tray in a stock pan, when not running, but as soon as you start it and the passages all fill, it is below the tray.  I have run my car with 6 quarts for years. I did not tend to have an issue, but it did happen now and again that after a long highway run I would get the idiot light if I even braked quickly. I think that the 6 quarts is the cheapest insurance that you will likely ever find for your bottom end, at least in most street driven/restored vehicles. Competition is another matter. Thanks! Chris   PS: these photos might be useful. Stock pan, top one with 4 quarts in it, bottom picture has 6. The 4 quarts picture should approximate what the pan is like when running with a total of 6 quarts of oil. Just about even with the windage tray. I treat the "full" mark on the dipstick as the "add" mark and do just fine! PPS: Also consider that when the oil is lower and only in the deeper part of the pan, being a quart low will make a bigger difference in oil depth than when it is spread out over the full length and width.