1976 Mercruiser 351W Oil Pan

[orttauq]

What pan is this? It is at end of life with cracks and corrosion but I can't determine what it is. Every SBF pan I find is a 'front sump' or 'rear sump' but this is neither. Is it even the right pan? Flywheel is on the left in picture.

 

[Scott Danforth]

its a marine pan. found in the ford industrial line of parts. you WONT find it looking in the normal automotive parts location.

repair what you have, would be easier to find blond frog hair than find a replacement pan.

the pan is NLA

there are aftermarket replacement pans for PCM built ford installations. but they are pricey. I saw a factory ford Mercruiser pan on ebay a while back with $2000 or best offer.

 

[orttauq]

Thanks, I was seeing those prices too. Going to pull it off the block today and see how bad it is. Tired of the Prince William Sound down there.

 

[nola mike]

Why won't an auto pan fit?

 

[Scott Danforth]

An auto pan will fit the block, but you lose a bit of oil capacity.

Then you need to get the appropriate pickup and if the pant isn't the same height as the marine pan, the dipstick calibration will be off

 

[orttauq]

Speaking of dipsticks, mine goes in the block by the timing cover but it also has a port on the side of the pan...found to be the source of a majority of my oil in the bilge. The dipstick also does not have a lower tube meaning I can't extract the oil that way.

 

[Mc Tool]

You can get high capacity car oil pans and pick ups . I got around low capacity oil pan on my capri build by fitting a remote filter adapter and then using two huge spin on filters ....got me nearly another 3 litres ....just fill the filters before fitting .
I guess it all depends on what it cost and how much mucking about you are prepared to go to .

 

[Chris1956]

Gee, the oil pan on my '88 4.3LX rusted thru by the mid 2000s. I replaced it with an auto pan, b/c of the price differential. The oil pickup needed to be bent up a little bit

I think you are real lucky to have yours so long. You might take a look at your pan and make sure it is not ready to rust thru in many other places, before considering a repair.

 

[orttauq]

I thought it had rusted through too based on how much oil was getting in to the bilge after one day on the water . I guess a sustained oil bath on the outside saved it
Once I got it off off the block I found it is solid; albeit a bit roughed up on the seal surfaces from someone using a crowbar to remove it in the past (motor has been rebuilt at least once as I found it the have forged pistons and what looks to be a performance cam) There is the riveted on port for the dipstick and the seal on that is shot. Combine that with a shot rear main seal it would get bad.
Cleaning it up now to fix the flange damage and use rubber gaskets; should be good.
One thing is I thought marine pans needed windage trays due to sustain high RPMs but this pan doesn't have one. Even searching online I see it mentioned for this block.

 

[Scott06]

epoxy paint it and spray with rhino liner to prevent future corrosion

 

[orttauq]

epoxy paint it and spray with rhino liner to prevent future corrosion

I was just checking on getting it powder coated. You think Epoxy Paint would be better?

 

[Chris1956]

I thought it had rusted through too based on how much oil was getting in to the bilge after one day on the water . I guess a sustained oil bath on the outside saved it
Once I got it off off the block I found it is solid; albeit a bit roughed up on the seal surfaces from someone using a crowbar to remove it in the past (motor has been rebuilt at least once as I found it the have forged pistons and what looks to be a performance cam) There is the riveted on port for the dipstick and the seal on that is shot. Combine that with a shot rear main seal it would get bad.
Cleaning it up now to fix the flange damage and use rubber gaskets; should be good.
One thing is I thought marine pans needed windage trays due to sustain high RPMs but this pan doesn't have one. Even searching online I see it mentioned for this block.

You imply that the oil pan had been leaking due to too much crowbar use on the sealing surface? Gee, I hope new gaskets will fix that leak, but I am skeptical.

 

[Chris1956]

I believe windage trays are a much newer engine feature. I think they were invented to save fuel by not having the engine waste energy splashing the oil in the pan.

 

[orttauq]

You imply that the oil pan had been leaking due to too much crowbar use on the sealing surface? Gee, I hope new gaskets will fix that leak, but I am skeptical.

A little heat, some light welding, and a flat fabrication table should save it.

I'll post pics as soon as I have it cleaned up.

 

[Scott06]

I was just checking on getting it powder coated. You think Epoxy Paint would be better?

Probably depends on what type of powder coating. Both ways are generally considered good corrosion resistance, I jdon't have experience with powder coating to know if it would be better. When restoring classic cars, blasting to bare metal and using PPG epoxy primer then top coating has given me excellent results for decades. I would lean this way because I can do this in my garage

I would speak to who ever is going to powder coat it and tell them what you want out of it in terms of corrosion resistance/ longevity and water or salt water exposure potential

 

[Scott Danforth]

I was just checking on getting it powder coated. You think Epoxy Paint would be better?

Powder coat is porous

Epoxy is not

 

[orttauq]

Thanks. I also learned that an oil soaked pan can't really be powder coated w/o an extensive bake (like 24 hours) to burn off all oils before coating, and the inside can't be coated at all. Thanks for pointing to PPG @Scott06. I was not having luck finding anything but RustOleum.

 

[Scott06]

Thanks. I also learned that an oil soaked pan can't really be powder coated w/o an extensive bake (like 24 hours) to burn off all oils before coating, and the inside can't be coated at all. Thanks for pointing to PPG @Scott06. I was not having luck finding anything but RustOleum.

you will have that issue with paint as well (oil contamination). Yes a lot of engine builders will bake the block heads and intake so the paint will adhere.

The PPG epoxy products are from their automotive refinishing line. Weather its PPG or other competing line they will have much better bare metal primer solutions than Rustoleum