[Camaro Dave]

How many of you out there are running with a windage tray on your Chevy motors and which kind? Also, do you notice an increase in HP?

[68 RS 302]

I use a milodon windage tray. I suppose the only real measure of its use would be on a dyno.

[Everett#2390]

I use OE Z/28 windage tray and its worth a couple tenths for me.

[jbird_tx]

Originally Posted by Everett#2390

I use OE Z/28 windage tray and its worth a couple tenths for me.

Wow, a couple of tenths? Thats huge for just a windage tray. I have the Milodon Diamond Stripper on my BBC, just to keep the oil in the sump where it belongs. I do not have any before and after tests.

[Larger Dave]

I run a Moroso 23035 windage kit in my SBC 406; and I even whittled on the crank scraper to install it as well but it was too thin (in the pan rail hold down area) to bolt on safely due to the width of the four bolt main conversion kit (I even had to grind the ends of steel caps to be able bolt on the pan). A windage tray (or any oil control efforts) only start to get a return on time invested above 4,500 RPM. You do get back 1-3 % of your engines total peak horsepower (depending upon how much effort and type of parts that you put in) that would have been lost to parasitic drag. To me the good news is the higher you spin an engine the more power you get back, because I love to rev 'em up.

The Moroso kit (or Milodon's or Canfield's) is an excellent investment. Then there are the molded, or sculptured crankshafts, to reduce windage offered by Callies / Lunati , Eagle, Scat, and HTC which if you are building a racer would be worth the expense. If you are living at WOT for any extended period of time then a dry sump system is the way to go. It just doesn't pay in drag racing, were it's over in a couple of seconds, and they are impractical on the street. (But think of the look on the Jiffy Lube guy's face when he asks you where to look for he filter.)

An excellent article on the subject was conducted by Circle Track. I'm not a fan of NASCAR; I got it when Petersen was sold to Primedia, and Primedia canceled my Drag Racing mag that I had a subscription to. It did teach me new respect for WOT tuning.

Working with Oil Windage
Dyno testing proves quality oil pan designs make power
http://circletrack.com/techarticles/...age/index.html


A fellow by the name of David Reher (of former Reher-Morrison fame; they haven't won much lately) says:

http://www.rehermorrison.com/techTalk/45.htm


Larger Dave

[maxharvard]

I have a moroso windage try like dave, i noticed a 7-10 hp gain at higher RPM's.

Good hp/$ ratio i think.

[Camaro Dave]

Interesting....In some parts catalogs they claim that a windage tray will add 12-15 HP on a 400 HP street motor. Seems like a good investment for the money. Thanks for the info!

[rszmjt]

I have noticed that most of the high dollar dry sump as well as wet sump pans use a mesh type windage tray to break the oil down into small droplets. I read somewhere that the solid trays want to act like a springboard and fling the returning oil back up into the rotating assembly, causing parasitic drag.
I think the diamond stripper tray has a mesh screen built into it. Windage trays are probably great for oil control in a street car or road racer etc.
Who actually knows? Guess someone will have to ask Grumpy?

[camaro_fever68]

This is a topic I was close to posting. I'm looking at getting a pan with a unidirectional windage screen and baffles and scrapers built in for my Luv. Seems like it might be a good idea.

[hhott71]

using a stock Z/28 windage tray, studs, pan and a moroso rear pan/pump baffle so the oil doesn't climb the back wall upon launch.

no before or afters.
just always used it though.

[Larger Dave]

A windage tray really comes into it's own if you like to fill your oil pan to the top of the tray. You can have more oil in circulation than without a tray, which keeps overall temp of motor down. (don't forget the oil is the other half of your cooling system to keep things that don't get wet (valve springs, rods, pistons) cool.

As it says in the article about the Wiston Cup racers when they went from five quarts to seven quarts of oil in the pan, their horsepower lose dropped significantly (with five quarts there wasn't enough oil in the control engine to make a statistical difference in parasitic drag when compared to the engine with oil control).



Larger Dave

[Sporter]

Not a Chevy engine but the Canton windage screen/tray and crank scraper combination on a Pontiac 455 makes an honest 10 hp at 5500 rpm. Would probably make more on a higher rpm engine.

[pdq67]

If you do decide to use a stock early 327 or the later Z-28 tray, drill some 1/8" holes in the middle of each indent so that the little daub of oil that remains on top can drain down when you shut her off!

You will see what I mean if you use onna them. And either one is fine!!

And also, the oil pump main cap baffle that hhott71 mentioned is very good too.

pdq67

[brucelbryan]

I have a milodon tray with a 7 qt. pan, 302ci hi rpm custom built engine; Amsoil synthetic oil - according to my research when building this motor, it should in fact be good for 10hp +/- at high RPM levels, assuming that more parasitic drag occurs at higher engine speeds. Would not recommend a 4 or 5qt pan with a windage tray. This engine hits the beginning of its real power band at around 4000 rpm, so I think that i am getting results. For the cost of the system, I think its certainly worth the install. I do not have before and after dyno sheets to prove this (engine build tapped me out), only research. Good luck!

[Camaro Dave]

Originally Posted by Sporter

Not a Chevy engine but the Canton windage screen/tray and crank scraper combination on a Pontiac 455 makes an honest 10 hp at 5500 rpm. Would probably make more on a higher rpm engine.

Hey Sporter! How's it going my PY buddy! I just put two and two together.