Race engine oil capacity

Son has a 496 lo deck with milodon dragster pan. Part # 31161 with dual line pump and remote wix spin on filter. Milodon shows 9 quarts plus filter. What oil capacity is everybody using?

5-6 qts in the sump is plenty. with 9 he sure wont be hurtin capacity wise

I use an empty quart bottle and water. Quart at a time in the pan on the bench to actually determine what should be in it. Just run it up to the tray or just below it. Running an accusump you can run it a bit low if you want.

I would start with what Mlidon recommends and then see if you want to test it with one less quart or not
When you say remote mounted Wix oil filter which remote filter # does your use ?

A lot depends on how much oil flows through the motor and can't get back to the pan quik enough, and also how hard you brake to slow down the car. I had to run 10 quarts in mine with race clearances in the bearings, and had to go to an accusump for hard braking so i didn't have to pull the parachute. 9.50s and quicker, 140 mph or more.

Mine needs at least 6.5 qts in the pan itself during shut down. It has baffels, a swinging pick up, and trap door. Push rod oil bushed lifters -1 heads. I suggest filling the pan before pre oil or running and mark the stick at 1qt increments.
Doug

What heads and block? Certain heads don't drainback near as well as other and its the same for some blocks. If you run a vacuum pump and see high vacuum levels you may need a bit more oil there too.

I would say fill the filter and 7 in the pan. If you start blowing oil out the breather, it's too much. As Al said, some heads drain back slow.

Indy ez heads on stock block

If you had a flow meter on the pump input you could calculate internal leakage at a given rpm. It would be nice to know pump rate as well. From this you could calculate how much oil you really need for a 10 second pass or whatever.

Has anybody ever heard of this? I'm thinking, but don't know, that most of us run more oil than we need.

I usually don't but heads with other sugestions, but now is the time.DO NOT run less than 10 quarts (9 plus one for filter) in that pan! You can watch your oil pressure carefully and cut back a bit at a time if you like, and see what your package will tolerate. But if you do, i suggest a very resposive gauge to show you any momentary starvation, and/or a high pressure idiot light.

I have used several different size lines for oil pressure, 1/4 inch line is way more responsive to oil pressure changes than the 1/8 or 1/16 lines are
NHRA had a rule at one time that didn't allow any oil pressure line bigger than 1/8 line

I cringe at the thought of running anything buy a Jomar No-Bypass oil filter on my RB. The thought of not filtering 100% of the oil 100% of the time scares something in me deep down inside....my motor.

All of the Ford and Mopar oil filters I have heard of all where bypass types, the Wix standard filter bypasses 20% and the race filter are suppose to bypass 40%
I have used the Oberg screen filters also, they have a built in bypass also but you can set them up so they will make a light come on when they start to bypass
As far as metal bypassing the oil filter versus how small the particles the filter will pass through it the filter media determines that , doesn't it
All the GM filters are 100% filtered but the motor will loose HP when using them also

I agree with gregsdart, there are too many people worried about a couple hp. We run a dragster at 7.60 @ 176 mph, when the chute hits you better have enough oil in the pan or bad things happen. Don't run less oil or you will have problems. Some old guys talk about 2 to 5 quarts above recommended amounts depending on how fast your set up is and how hard the shut down is. Trust me purple crankshafts and broken connecting rods suck. Now let the hammering begin...

Good info, Cab. I read that pressure drop at the filters is an indication of not enough filtration capacity, and that must be where the HP loss is.

Jomar does a good job of explaining the pressure drop and the no=bypass benefit on their website, and I based my choice of filters on that.