Overfill crankcase on track days?

[69427]

I keep reading about several guys with newer Corvettes grenading their LSx engines in highspeed corners, and it has me wondering. I do try to check the oil pressure gauge in long corners, and so far things "appear" okay, but I'm curious. Given that perhaps a quart (or more) of oil is pooled up in the heads and lifter valley, would there be any downside to running an extra quart of oil in the (six quart) system? My curiosity has me wishing I had put several quarts of "colored water" or something in the pan and rotated it around to see what sort of level was left in the bottom at times.

So, thoughts, opinions,...?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[turtlevette]

Do it. Run a quart overfull. Downside is that it makes a bit of a mess. Upside is it saves a bearing.

I've never worried about it because i'm just not pulling that kind of Gs in the corners. We'll ignore the water comment and just chalk that one up to dementia.

 

[big2bird]

I keep reading about several guys with newer Corvettes grenading their LSx engines in highspeed corners, and it has me wondering. I do try to check the oil pressure gauge in long corners, and so far things "appear" okay, but I'm curious. Given that perhaps a quart (or more) of oil is pooled up in the heads and lifter valley, would there be any downside to running an extra quart of oil in the (six quart) system? My curiosity has me wishing I had put several quarts of "colored water" or something in the pan and rotated it around to see what sort of level was left in the bottom at times.

So, thoughts, opinions,...?

Thanks,
Mike

1) If it ain't broken..................

2) Improve the oil control in your pan with trap doors, baffles, all that neat circle track goodies.

 

[1Michel]

I keep reading about several guys with newer Corvettes grenading their LSx engines in highspeed corners, and it has me wondering. I do try to check the oil pressure gauge in long corners, and so far things "appear" okay, but I'm curious. Given that perhaps a quart (or more) of oil is pooled up in the heads and lifter valley, would there be any downside to running an extra quart of oil in the (six quart) system? My curiosity has me wishing I had put several quarts of "colored water" or something in the pan and rotated it around to see what sort of level was left in the bottom at times.

So, thoughts, opinions,...?

Thanks,
Mike

1) If it ain't broken..................

2) Improve the oil control in your pan with trap doors, baffles, all that neat circle track goodies.

Isnt this what Norval did with his oil pan?

Installed baffles.


Thats when he modded his pan to take 10 quarts.

 

[69427]

I keep reading about several guys with newer Corvettes grenading their LSx engines in highspeed corners, and it has me wondering. I do try to check the oil pressure gauge in long corners, and so far things "appear" okay, but I'm curious. Given that perhaps a quart (or more) of oil is pooled up in the heads and lifter valley, would there be any downside to running an extra quart of oil in the (six quart) system? My curiosity has me wishing I had put several quarts of "colored water" or something in the pan and rotated it around to see what sort of level was left in the bottom at times.

So, thoughts, opinions,...?

Thanks,
Mike

1) If it ain't broken.................. I'm just trying to keep it from breaking. :sweat:

2) Improve the oil control in your pan with trap doors, baffles, all that neat circle track goodies.

The current oil pan has a trap door and baffle, along with the windage tray on the main studs.
I've got an accusump on the '84, which I might transplant onto the '69 while the '84 is out of commision. Can't hurt.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Accusump

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

 

[redvetracr]

Accusump

is a joke compared to this...anyone who doesn`t see oil pressure fluctuation in a long sweeping corner isn`t driving hard enough.

 

[turtlevette]

is a joke compared to this...anyone who doesn`t see oil pressure fluctuation in a long sweeping corner isn`t driving hard enough.

I only look down on the straights.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Accusump

is a joke compared to this...anyone who doesn`t see oil pressure fluctuation in a long sweeping corner isn`t driving hard enough.

Yes, but his engine isn't set up for dry sump and I don't think he'd want to convert it. Those blocks use funky oil line adapters and you'd have to either replace or cap off the rear main cap and block the rear vertical pasage to the oil pump. So instead of overfilling IMO an accusump is a good compromise if he is not seeing very serious oil starvation.

 

[big2bird]

I keep reading about several guys with newer Corvettes grenading their LSx engines in highspeed corners, and it has me wondering. I do try to check the oil pressure gauge in long corners, and so far things "appear" okay, but I'm curious. Given that perhaps a quart (or more) of oil is pooled up in the heads and lifter valley, would there be any downside to running an extra quart of oil in the (six quart) system? My curiosity has me wishing I had put several quarts of "colored water" or something in the pan and rotated it around to see what sort of level was left in the bottom at times.

So, thoughts, opinions,...?

Thanks,
Mike

1) If it ain't broken.................. I'm just trying to keep it from breaking. :sweat:

2) Improve the oil control in your pan with trap doors, baffles, all that neat circle track goodies.

The current oil pan has a trap door and baffle, along with the windage tray on the main studs.
I've got an accusump on the '84, which I might transplant onto the '69 while the '84 is out of commision. Can't hurt.

Sounds like you don't have an issue to me.

 

[69427]

I keep reading about several guys with newer Corvettes grenading their LSx engines in highspeed corners, and it has me wondering. I do try to check the oil pressure gauge in long corners, and so far things "appear" okay, but I'm curious. Given that perhaps a quart (or more) of oil is pooled up in the heads and lifter valley, would there be any downside to running an extra quart of oil in the (six quart) system? My curiosity has me wishing I had put several quarts of "colored water" or something in the pan and rotated it around to see what sort of level was left in the bottom at times.

So, thoughts, opinions,...?

Thanks,
Mike

1) If it ain't broken.................. I'm just trying to keep it from breaking. :sweat:

2) Improve the oil control in your pan with trap doors, baffles, all that neat circle track goodies.

The current oil pan has a trap door and baffle, along with the windage tray on the main studs.
I've got an accusump on the '84, which I might transplant onto the '69 while the '84 is out of commision. Can't hurt.

Sounds like you don't have an issue to me.

Well, I don't have any direct evidence that I have a problem, I'm just trying to increase my engine safety margin, and also allow me to worry a bit less while out having fun.

Trying to figure out where on the block to plumb in the accusump. The only place that makes sense to me is downstream of the filter (to protect the accusump internals), and the only place I see available is under the filter bypass plunger. The bore at 12:00 in the picture is where the bypass spring/plunger went in.



Here's a later picture with the bypass plunger in there. Thanks again to TT for helping me find some of the odd parts in there that were different than the Mk IV stuff I was familiar with.



I assume I can replace the nearby plug with an AN nipple and run a line to the accusump.

 

[TimAT]

The old HP BBC's had those plugs over the oil filter mount for an oil cooler. I've got an oil temp sender in one of Ol' Red's. Would seem to me like one of them would be a dandy place to plumb in the Accusump.

 

[larrywalk]

[/quote]
1) If it ain't broken..................
2) Improve the oil control in your pan with trap doors, baffles, all that neat circle track goodies.[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately if the problem is due to slow drain-back from the cylinder head valve spring galley, baffles in the pan won't help. Either improve the drain-back, or as a stop gap, add an extra quart of oil in the pan.