63 HP Oil Pan - Joe, Duke, Mikie, et al

[Dennis C.]

1963 - 360 HP. Is pan lower sump about 13.5" with drain plug at rear about 45 degrees? Is motor equipped with windage tray (baffle) hanging off (5?) main cap studs. Does our pan have a swinging trap door included in the pan baffles. Does this pan continue useage into the 1965 model year w/HP? Is this pan reproduced by Chevrolet or a swap meet item? If you change oil & filter, do you need 6 quarts to make the dipstick happy? Thanks guys, Dennis

[Mike M.]

Re: 63 HP Oil Pan - Joe, Duke, Mikie, et al

only Sondra will make the dipstick happy. you ask toooo many questions.Will answer in order of their appearaance. A. will have to go out in cold to measure pan so another warm soul will have to do. B. all the solid lifter 63's had windage tray fastened to 5 of the main cap fastners which are still available from GM. believe tray is too.have several if you need one. C. trap door part of the picture,its metal unlike Sadam's styrofoam door.
D. believe the 63 thru 65 solid lifter small blocks all used same pan which was d/c'd years ago by the good folks at GM.. 6 qts right answer for oil change with filter. merry christmas, mikie

[Rick A.]

Re: 63 HP Oil Pan - Joe, Duke, Mikie, et al

Question 1-4 YES; bought last NOS Doc Rebuild had, sorry! checked with bunch of other folks before and struck out, before I found the one that the good Doctor had! 6 quarts - YES!

FYI - am restoring my 1963 Z06 and that is why I bought a new one - original had #3 rod blow out the oil pan!

[Duke W.]

Re: 63 HP Oil Pan - Joe, Duke, Mikie, et al

Hmmm... what can I add? Dont know the length of the deep section off hand, Dennis, but it extends the about 3/4 the length of pan. The 250/300 HP deep section extends about half the pan length. Oil drain plug is as you describe - centered at the back of the pan at about a 30-45 degree angle in a slighly depressed volume so the bottom of the plug is slightly lower than the bottom of the deep section

The SHP/FI pan has baffling around the oil pump pickup and a swinging trap door that prevents oil from sloshing to the front of the pan under heavy braking.

The pan is accompanied by a FLAT (not curved as on later SHPs) windage tray that is held by five studs that are substituted for the standard main cap bolts.

The "big" pan capacity is five quarts, and with cannister filter capacity of one quart, the total system capacity is 6 quarts.

Back before SCCA allowed dry sumps, racers typically overfilled these systems by one quart and didn't suffer too much oil starvation, but that was before slicks.

These pans apply to '63 to '65 mechanical lifter engines. The '65 L-79 is somewhat mysterious. I believe early '65 L-79 may have had this pan/tray set up, but later '65 L-79s may have the base engine oil pan arrangement in order to offer the power steering option. For sure this was the case by '66. Models with the big pan did not have the manual steering linkage damper and P/S was not available because the pan occupied the same space as boost cylinder, which occupied the same space as the damper on non-P/S models.

Duke

[Joe L.]

Re: 63 HP Oil Pan - Joe, Duke, Mikie, et al

Dennis----

In addition to what others mentioned, I'll add the following:

1) Your description of the 63+ SHP oil pan sounds about right to me;

2) baffle for this oil pan is GM #3769768. It's discontinued but available in reproduction;

3) main cap studs for oil baffle are GM #3872781 and are still available from GM; 5 required;

4) this pan, GM #3820001, was used for all 1963-65 SHP mechanical lifter applications except any that may have been made with power steering. It MAY have been used on some 1965-66 L-79 applications without power steering. It was also used for 70-72 Corvette with ZR-1 as well as, possibly, some very early 1970 with LT-1.

5) in about 1976, GM replaced this pan with pan GM #359942. This pan is IDENTICAL EXCEPT for the front oil pan seal radius. For the 3820001, the radius was 2-1/4"; for the 359942 the radius was 2-3/8". The GM #359942 was discontinued several years ago and is not currently reproduced. The 359942 was a SERVICE-only pan; it was NEVER used in PRODUCTION;

6) The 3820001 was used ONLY for the Corvette applications described above; it was NEVER used for any other Chevrolet application whatsoever.

[Loren L.]

Have we just discovered that the '65 FI

car has the wrong pan or ?????

[Dennis C.]

No, not this time, just trying to point a friend

in the right direction on his 63 360 HP. He bought a low HP pan on ebay thinking it was the right one. Is now suffering a bit of depression, but will get over it.

[Dennis C.]

Thanks Guys, As usual, great response. DC *NM*

[Joe L.]

Re: No, not this time, just trying to point a frie

Dennis-----

The "low hp" 63-74 pan, originally GM #3820000 and, later, GM #360866, is worth more than the SHP pan. It has much wider original applicability and it's also discontinued and hard to find. He need not be depressed over it.

[Dennis C.]

Thanks Joe, Maybe your response will cause

him to join NCRS. I hope so. Last night was his first visitation to the NDB. Best, Dennis