Chevrolet Experimental Oil Pan, Oil Pump and Pickup

[OCTARD]

I'm posting some pictures of an experimental oil pan, oil pump and pickup. 

Per the owner, Mark Schwartz:

Zora Duntov designed it, then had Smokey do testing on it.  Smokey built an engine to run it on and them built a stand that allowed him to be able to rock it around at all angles.  The bottom was cut out and a window glued in to be able to be sure that the pickup tube would swivel properly.  Smokey ended up with the thing and sold it at one of his garage sales.  I instantly recognized the oil pump as it is pictured in books that Smokey wrote.  The way I found out most of what I know about the thing is from talking to Zora Duntov at the Palm Springs vintage races one year.  Zora really was a very nice person and very happy to tell you about things he had done over the years he was at GM.

[OCTARD]

2 more pictures..

[OCTARD]

And 2 more pictures (sorry, file size limits of the forum require me to split this up into additional replies).

[OCTARD]

And 2 more pictures...

[OCTARD]

And 2 more pictures..

[OCTARD]

And the last picture..

[OCTARD]

Just in case the text from Mark Schwartz, and the pictures above, don't provide enough of an explanation... The pickup on this oil pump rotates freely, a full 360 degrees.  The intent of the design is to have the pickup located in an area where there will still be oil, even if the vehicle is sloshing the stuff about during acceleration, braking and heavy cornering.  Though this pickup could be useful for many types of driving, it would seem particularly well suited for road racing.

Several other "road race" wet sump style oil pans try to capture the oil in a box with trap doors in an effort to provide the pickup with a more steady pool of oil.  A few pics of a box and trap door arrangement are included below.  The pics show an AVIAID road race pan for a first generation Camaro.

-Chad

[Jon Mello]

Chad, that cast oil pan and the trick pump and pickup... all I can say is WOW.  Really cool.  Thanks for posting it and many, many thanks to Mark for letting it be shown here. The extra photos of the Aviaid pan are a great addition too. I have a photo of another experimental pan I'll try and post in the next day or so.

[BlackoutSteve]

It looks like the pump bypasses oil back to the pick up via the rubber hose?
I wonder if that was the hiPerf theory of the day..

[OCTARD]

To answer the question from BlackoutSteve, I've included a picture and blurb of a similar/same unit noted in How to HOTROD Small-block Chevys (by Bill Fisher & Bob Waar)

[OCTARD]

And another picture of a similar/same pump and pickup noted in SMOKEY YUNICK'S POWER SECRETS.

[Jon Mello]

Here's another version of an experimental cast aluminum oil pan done by Chevrolet, courtesy of Dick Lewis. While Dick has moved on to enjoy some
of his other hobbies, when it comes to knowledge of special Chevrolet cars and parts he is right there at the tippy-top as far as I am concerned.

Frank Dihartce has a letter from Dick Lewis from 1984 discussing the oil pan. In the letter to Frank, Dick wrote "... Smokey Yunick told me it was the
last one he had, and that there were six made. It has the numbers "V2 892 872" cast on it, and the pan was discontinued when he rigged up a trick
hidden dry sump system inside the motor."


Photo by Dick Lewis


Photo by Dick Lewis

[BlackoutSteve]

To answer the question from BlackoutSteve, I've included a picture and blurb of a similar/same unit noted in How to HOTROD Small-block Chevys (by Bill Fisher & Bob Waar)

Thanks Octard.. That's what I thought, and is the opposite of the anti-aeration/cavitation theories today, with high-performance pump makers (like Titan for example) that dump bypassed oil directly back to the pan to eliminate aeration/cavitation. The OE pump sends it back to the vacuum side of the gears, and this Smokey pump, back to the pickup.
Perhaps Smokey did it more for the film of oil that the swinging pickup needed -as mentioned in the text.

[Dr L-88]

Hello everyone.  Newbie here, Rex Turner from KY.  A friend and fellow member, Jon Mello, suggested I investigate the CRG site, and I must say, it's pretty fantastic!!!!  I love stuff like these cast aluminum oil pans, and am wondering if anyone has one of these beauties for sale.

Thanks in advance for your consideration........................hope to hear from someone, and keep up the great work of this site.

I have an original GM aluminum small block that one of these pans would compliment very nicely.

Rex

[Jon Mello]

The unique oil pan once owned by Dick Lewis and currently owned by Warren Malkin is for sale over on the Yenko website. More pictures of the item are posted there as well.

http://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1371462#post1371462