Oil pressure issues on LS1 CMC cars?

[slowfrc]

Hello all, I'm new here, my username on frrax.com is 370camaro95.

I was just curious if anyone with an LS1 powered CMC car sees any losses of oil pressure in corners? A few corvettes I had in the past would lose oil pressure in some corners on hoosiers, and with that my confidence would drop too lol.

I am building a CMC car and will add an accusump eventually, and will probably go with some baffle inserts for the oil pan but if I can get started racing and not need an accusump immediately that is one step closer to getting on track.

[Sook]

This is supposed to help:
http://www.improvedracing.com/oil-pan-baffles/ls1-camaro-firebird-body-racing-oil-pan-baffle-p-30.html

But what do I know, I seized the LS1 in the CMC car I was driving within the first 20 mins of track time.
- Josh

[Storm Trooper]

Hello all, I'm new here, my username on frrax.com is 370camaro95.

I was just curious if anyone with an LS1 powered CMC car sees any losses of oil pressure in corners? A few corvettes I had in the past would lose oil pressure in some corners on hoosiers, and with that my confidence would drop too lol.

I am building a CMC car and will add an accusump eventually, and will probably go with some baffle inserts for the oil pan but if I can get started racing and not need an accusump immediately that is one step closer to getting on track.

Sell the stock pan. Buy a 7qt race pan. I have had no issues, and I decided not to use my accusump.
My two cents
Sean

[Supercharged111]

Can't you overfill? That's what I did on my Z06 (albeit with NT05s), lots of others on DOT R comps doing just fine. That batwing pan is supposed to be the key though. I find it odd my old LT1 has no issues and I don't even overfill. Could just be our local tracks?

[slowfrc]

Okay that convinces me. And I actually didn't realize how cheap an accusump system is, I should have at least looked at that before posting this, my bad. I will just go with a race oil pan and accusump to begin with.

[marshall_mosty]

I started with an Accusump and then upgraded the pan afterwards. I've had ZERO oiling issues in the past 8-9 years after doing both. To me, the Accusump is just added insurance for the long, high speed stuff that we have at some of our tracks (TWS and MSR-H).

Mine is in a pushrod SBF, but the theory hold for everything...

[BryanL]

This is supposed to help:
http://www.improvedracing.com/oil-pan-baffles/ls1-camaro-firebird-body-racing-oil-pan-baffle-p-30.html

But what do I know, I seized the LS1 in the CMC car I was driving within the first 20 mins of track time.
- Josh

Tell me more Josh. Was it a quart over?

Slowfrc-the first bandaid is having the stock pan overfull by a quart which generally takes care of most problems as that is all my current LS has which hasn't had a problem in I guess 6 years. My other car had an accusump and then I added an improved racing baffle and never had a problem over 6 years. The pan baffle and accusump are good insurance. I question the need for the race pan mainly because I'm told it sits an inch lower than the stock pan which then exposes it below the k member. If you never go off track or hit a curb then it doesn't matter. I would research what the pan does that the baffle doesn't and please share that answer as I don't know it. I do know a pan is pretty expensive. I have a spare accusump if you want to buy one.

[Pranav]

I've been happy with my canton RR pan in my 4th gen so far but i haven't gotten it out to TWS to test how well the baffling works. Like Bryan mentioned it unfortunately sticks out about 3/4" below the subframe so I had to weld a piece of 1.5" keystock to the subframe in front of it to keep it safe. It was a little difficult to install as I had to mod the canton pickup tube to fit since the high volume pump changed shifted the mounting point forward by a little. I went with this pan because I did not have an f body pan at all for my truck motor, and figured Canton was the way to go given how well it worked with my LT1.

I see that improved racing makes a nice drop-in baffle replacement for the stock LS1 pan, and with overfilling you should be good with that by itself.

[slowfrc]

Tell me more Josh. Was it a quart over?

Slowfrc-the first bandaid is having the stock pan overfull by a quart which generally takes care of most problems as that is all my current LS has which hasn't had a problem in I guess 6 years. My other car had an accusump and then I added an improved racing baffle and never had a problem over 6 years. The pan baffle and accusump are good insurance. I question the need for the race pan mainly because I'm told it sits an inch lower than the stock pan which then exposes it below the k member. If you never go off track or hit a curb then it doesn't matter. I would research what the pan does that the baffle doesn't and please share that answer as I don't know it. I do know a pan is pretty expensive. I have a spare accusump if you want to buy one.

Well it all comes down to cost for me. If I buy a complete ls1 I will get a pan with it. If I need a pan anyways, then my two options I found cost about the same. I don't like the Canton oil pan due to the extra inch of ground clearance lost like you said.

The ls fbody pan and baffle is right around $500, and when I want to add an oil cooler and accusump Ill need to buy the adaptor block for $135
http://www.improvedracing.com/baffled-oil-pans/baffled-racing-oil-pan-for-ls1-camaro-firebird-body-p-75.html
http://www.improvedracing.com/oiling-system/oil-cooler-adapters-c-3_18.html

This pan should work great having fittings already added, baffle integrated, and has about the same dimensions as the oem pan. The price is also decent, considering it comes with gasket, bolts, and fittings.
https://kevko.myshopify.com/collections/wet-sump-chevy-ls-pans/products/part-ls-f-body-ls-f-body-pan?variant=30560640579

[Sook]

Tell me more Josh. Was it a quart over?

I did run it a quart over, pretty sure I got that tip from you.

Was at MSR-Houston for Friday test-n-tune, first time the car would drive at speed with the new (to me) motor. Took it out in the first session to scrub some tires for 2-3 easy laps. Did about 15 minutes in the second session and one of the bungs on the water pump blew out of the housing(water pump housing failure), then overheated, and apparently seized. Was able to pull the plugs and found some water in the cylinders, it would turn - but not well. Cooked a starter too. Guessing that the head gasket went and pressurized the cooling channels, failing the water pump.

Pulled the engine out and found water in the cylinders. Removed the timing chain and still couldn't turn the crank. Thinking it's a spun main bearing. We had just completed a full ls1 conversion on the car, so theoretically swapping in another ls based motor should be easy.

It was a junk yard motor, so I'm guessing it had issues before it was in the junk yard. Going iron 5.3 for Cresson. Hopefully the car will make it through a weekend without issue!

- Josh

[BryanL]

Sounds like the water pump modification caused the problem. I had a LS pump that was modified for a guage on my 68 Camaro. I don't like that for a road race car-you can use the sensor on the drivers side head for water temp.

[Pranav]

They make metric to NPT adapters so you can run your own gauge off of the unused plugged port on the rear of the passenger head.

VDO has a direct fit metric fitting with a published ohm chart if you are running it with a programmable dash.

[Sook]

That water pump wasn't modified as far as I know. I had an inline adapter in one of the coolant hoses that I was using for temperature. I had tried to use the port on the passenger head, but the bolt stripped out before it broke free.