Speedway Tech Talk - LS Oil Pans

One of the top things to consider when swapping an LS motor is the oil pan. The LS family has many different pans and they come in all sorts of different sizes based on the cars or trucks they were meant for. The trucks were larger as they offered higher oil capacity and the cars were smaller for fitment in GM’s sports cars.

For many of us, the LS truck motor was the best bang for the buck. Unfortunately, that motor came with a very deep oil pan that measured over 8” tall. For most LS swaps the truck pan will be too tall and once mounted in the car will be way too close to the ground. Of course being too close to the ground, means you will have to dance your ride around speed bumps and even those less then pristine streets that look like the Oregon trail.

Holley offers an aluminum pan item 4253021 that closely resembles the Fbody pan. The Camaro “F-Body” pan is probably one of the most popular style pans used in LS swaps. This pan measures roughly 5 5/8 tall at the sump. That makes this pan over 2 inches shorter than a truck pan and in most cases be protected by your engines cross member. The front of the pan measures approx. 2.25” tall and 14” from the front to the sump. This pan comes, with the hardware, and the pickup.

Here at Speedway Motors, we offer our own steel pan and it comes in Zinc 9101744, Black 9101742 or Chrome 9101743. This pan holds 7 quarts, which holds more than the 5 quart Fbody pan. The sump measures almost 6” deep and 11.75” from the front to the sump. This pan is slightly shorter at the front, which is great if you have a cross member that would need to be ground down for an Fbody pan. This pan has two AN10 fittings that provide oil to a remote mounted oil filter. This pan doesn’t allow you to screw a filter onto it like a factory GM pan, so a remote oil filter like item 7201056 will need to be purchased separately. You will want to mount this in an accessible area for when you need to change the oil. What’s great about this adapter is that it accepts an AC Delco PF1218 filter; item 91015175. The last thing to complete this part of your project is to purchase the oil pickup; item 9101745. Make sure you generously apply motor oil to the oil ring when installing it, as you don’t want to rip it.

"Hello everyone and welcome to Speedway Motors! My name is Pat. Today I want to show you what Speedway has to offer for LS oil pans, but first I want to take you for a little cruise down memory lane. Alright so my first car that ever swapped was a 77 El Camino. That's right business in the front, party in the back and I just went out for a cruise one day, about 55-60 miles an hour and up comes a set of railroad tracks. I honestly didn't really think anything of it, until I floated over it and boom! Jaws come up, grab my oil pan, it took a bite out of the sucker! Now I rode it out, cuz I thought for sure the suspension had given away, (or) the car had either broken in half, but I make it a couple blocks down and I look out back and there was smoke just pouring out of the back of this thing. It literally looked like I was trying out for the Blue Angels but in the El Camino."

"So yeah this, as much as I wanted to keep a project cheap and use the stock wall pan off the 5:3, it probably woulda been a lot smarter to use the one that was a lot shallower. This thing measures in at like an almighty eight and a half inches, and it is deep this thing. And I knew right off hand this thing was hanging out about two to three inches below my crossmember, and so I knew I had to take it easy on bumps curbs and, I don't know, I did a brain fart going over road tracks. That was an issue."

"So I would suggest getting a pan, so I'm go ahead and show you what we have for pans. Now this is probably one of the more popular pans used on the market. it's similar to the F body pan. It's from Holley, it's an aluminum pan, and you know here at the sump, measures 5 5/8 so already were at least two and a half inches shorter than a stock GM truck pan. So that's going to bring you up towards where your crossmember would be on your car. The sump at the front here is about two and a quarter inches tall from the lip to the bottom. And then from here to here if you're wondering where you're going to be at your crossmember, where your location of your motor is gonna be, This is about 14 inches, so nice pan I have this on my Impala and it literally is flush with the front crossmember. A great pan overall and this thing comes with the pickup and the hardware, pretty much all you would need to get started."

"So then back here you see we have a our Speedway LS pan. It comes in three different finishes. I got this Zinc. It's kind of a gold tint, it just helps keep the pan from rusting. Behind me we have chrome and black. This is a really nice pan. It is a steel pan unlike the Holley which is aluminum. It holds seven quarts of oil, the Holley pan was like 5, so this will hold more. The measurements on this from lip to bottom a sump is almost 6 inches it's just a little bit taller than the Holley pan. It's 11 and three-quarter inches from here to the front of the motor, so it's got a little bit more body in the pan. And then this here is an inch and 5/8 so it is a little bit skinnier in case you're having some issues getting the motor sandwiched in there."

"But this pan it is a pretty basic pan, this one doesn't come with a spot for the oil filter like the Holley pan, so in that case you would also have to buy like an oil filter relocation kit. We sell several versions of how this mounts, whether it's vertical or horizontal. It basically it just takes your stock GM oil filter and screws right on. So pretty slick just a little bit of extra work, but the price differences is pretty great. So this is a great pan to use. It does come with a filler plug and then, since it is since it does have a remote location oil filter, it does come with a couple big 90 degree elbows here and these are A/N 10. So you want to pick up some A/N 10 fittings, some push style."

"And then of course the pick up, the oil pickup, this is a separate piece as well. This has got the o-ring just like the GM. Just remember when you go to put these in, use quite a bit of oil. Don't be stingy on it otherwise, these will tend to rip and then cause all sorts of problems with your oil pressure. So if you have any questions about LS oil pans or anything to swap over your LS motor give us a call here at Speedway or check us out on our website at speedwaymotors.com. Thanks for visiting!"