Racing and high-performance engines put demands on the oiling system that original equipment oil pans just can't handle. High volume/high pressure pumps typically used on such engines can quickly suck a standard capacity pan dry at high RPMs. And under the quick acceleration of a drag racer or hard cornering of a road or circle track racer, the oil could slosh away from the sump on a factory pan, starving the engine of oil and causing severe damage.
The performance oil pans we offer provide ample oil capacity along with the oil control you need for every application. They're designed and manufactured by the top names in performance lubrication systems, companies with decades of racing experience, and each oil pan is crafted for the specific engine, vehicle, and purpose. We have oil pans for street & strip, drag racing, road racing, circle track, off-road, dry sump, and pans designed for engine swaps.
Creating more oil capacity and clearing crossmembers, steering linkage, and headers, while providing the necessary ground clearance, is no easy feat, especially on lowered vehicles. And clearance isn't just an external issue; stroker motors need more room inside the pan. But no matter what your setup is, we have a pan for the job, even if you have a non-original engine/chassis combo. And unlike factory oil pans, which can allow oil to move away from the pickup tube during hard acceleration and cornering, resulting in loss of oil pressure, our performance pans have the baffles to control the oil and direct it to the pickup.
There's more to oil control, however, than just making sure there is plenty in the sump. Many performance oil pans come with baffles and windage trays to keep the churning air created by piston movement from stirring up the oil in the sump, and to prevent oil in the sump from getting on the rotating assembly. The elimination of oil resistance and friction by windage trays, which are often combined with crank scrapers that catch the oil spray off the crankshaft, can allow an engine to make as much as 5% more horsepower, and help reduce oil temperature. We offer pans with integral windage trays as well as individual trays.
Much of the information above applies only to wet sump oil pans. We also offer pans for dry sump systems, where the pan is actually a shallow sump, from which oil is scavenged by an external pump and stored in a remote reservoir. Dry sump systems have long been used in racing and are starting to show up in some production performance models. They have a number of advantages: The rotating assembly is free of oil drag, allowing the engine to make more power; crankcase vacuum created by scavenging improves ring seal; the remote tank allows an easy increase in oil capacity; and the shallow pan provides more ground clearance. |