Paul Poore Oil Pan - How much oil are you running?

#1

I finally got around to getting this installed. I’ve been running 8 quarts, but I was curious what others are running in the pan. Anyone? - AB

#2

Sounds like a familiar number. DIpstick level relative to the oil pick up is unchanged so you should still be able to trust your dipstick.

#3

Paul told me to run the oil up to the bottom of the line on the dip stick.

#4

I figured there might be differing opinions. 8 quarts did get it to the “full” mark on the dipstick, which is what I was thinking was right, but it’s interesting that Paul says it needs to be to the bottom line… Hmmm. - AB

#5

we have run ours about in the middle. seems to work great. our last motor ran a poore pan from start to rebuild and all the bearings looked great when disassembled.

Drive-gear.com

#6

I talked to Paul Poore today. He recommends that you only put in enough oil that it measures at the “L” on the stick, about 6 quarts he said. More than that and he found that the additional oil would foam on the crank without a crank scraper.

While I’m sure I wouldn’t have hurt my engine with my 8 quarts, it’s only run for about 20 minutes on jackstands since installing the pan, so I’ll drain out a couple of quarts :slight_smile: - AB

#7

What about with a crank scraper?

#8

You can probably run it right up to the “H” on the stick. When he designed the pan, he was worried about slosh with that much oil, thus recommended to me the 6 quarts given that I don’t have a crank scraper. - AB

#9

I’ve played around with oil a lot, as the veterans here will attest.

Oil foaming isn’t that much of an issue. This is more a matter of an “anti-foam” additive in the oil’s chemistry than the oil level. The inside of the engine is a wild whirling hurricane of oil, especially in the absence of a scraper. A qt too much oil isn’t going to matter.

Worry about anti-foam when you use an oil intended for diesel engines.

I experimented once with putting too much oil in. The plugs started fouling at 2qts over.

IMO I’d just run oil up to the normal place on the stick and be done with it.

Paul used to suggest that no scraper was necessary with his pan. I don’t know if he still maintains that. His terrific oil pan primarily provides oil “surge volumes”. Little baffling and no scraping. With so much surge volume you can probably get by with the “not much baffling”, but running a scraper with it has merit. The scraper creates a nice “still oil volume” for the oil pump, and also reduces the whirling oil hurricane. Both are worth doing.

#10

Paul’s pan is baffled and the box that surrounds the pump pickup has one way trap doors to let oil in, but not out under g loads. Additionally the extension on the right side of the pan gives oil a place to go in a left hand turn rather flowing up the side of the block, which is a form of baffling.

I don’t know what Paul’s opinion on a scraper is when using this pan, but I agree that a scraper will provide a benefit and certainly won’t hurt.

#11

It sounds like we have different definitions of baffles.

I’d contend that the oil won’t go up the side of the block. It doesn’t normally slosh that high. At high rpm there’s only 1-2" of oil in the pan (I figured this out with temp sensors). We get at best 1.2g of sustained lateral load, so imagine the 1.5" of oil in your pan at an angle a bit more steep than 45deg. The pan’s pretty deep so at the very most the oil level might just brush the top of the oil pan. This is why the I-J scraper is not a baffle. It sits too high to act as a baffle.

The plate that sits in the oil pan about 3" from the bottom is the baffle. Of course there’s nothing on the right side.

I must politely disagree with your description of how the extension on the right side of the pan works. In a left hand turn, oil comes out of the left extension towards the pump. The doors on the right extension close so the oil flowing towards the pump cannot go into the right extension. This keeps the oil near the pump.

It’s not so much that the right extension keeps the oil from flowing uselessly up the side of the block, but more “the doors in the right extension close trapping the oil in the pan. For all practical purposes the oil isn’t going to slosh all the way up to the side of the block but it would be darn handy to have a baffle lower on the right side of the pan to help trap the oil down lower.”

#12

Our opinions differ on the behavior of the oil. I think it goes further up the side of the pan/block. But the reality is that we don’t really know what happens. All I really know (from data) is that there is a pressure drop with an OE pan and IJ scraper and none with a PP pan and IJ scraper. I can’t say how of that is from the pan baffles and/or shape and the increased capacity, but since I don’t see pressure drops I don’t really care.

#13

The oil will certainly go higher up when the car is jerked around. I was only making a point re. “sustained” g. In that scenario the I-J scraper, normally too high to be a baffle, does end up acting as a baffle.

One one of my old oil pans I had the temp sensor a little too high. That mistake allowed me to closely monitor oil level in the pan because I could see when the sensor was covered and when it wasn’t by the big temp delta. It was very interesting. As we accelerate down a long straight our oil level drops a lot. It takes a surprisingly long time, say >5secs for the increased oil flow (due to high rpm) to result in increased oil flow back to the pan. It was spooky to see the temp sensor come uncovered several times/lap.

I agree that a scraper is not enough. The combo of baffling and a scraper is better. My favorite solution is to put a door on the OEM left baffle, and then delete the oil pressure relief valve (OPRV) that hangs down from the block. With that deleted, you can put in a really terrific right side baffle.

If someone is concerned about deleting that OPRV, they can just put in their own right-side baffle. But the tighter is seals around the OPRV, the better. Or if you put the right side baffle a little lower then the (OEM) front/left baffle it will probably clear the OPRV and then a person can baffle to their heart’s content.