Bang-for-buck street protection - oil pan or accumulator?

I have been spending a lot of hours replacing the rest of my car's suspension - which has me turning to the stock mid-sump small block oil pan I have on my motor (late 90s 318 in a 67 Coronet)

I'm never going to run this car very hard, maybe an autocross at most - otherwise just some backwoods fun. But I don't want to cause myself problems from cornering or braking starvation if it's a possibility with a stock pan. I can see how the oil can slop forward away from the pickup currently.

However, I also don't want to run a road race pan for the sake of ground clearance - if I were to change the pan, I'd want a trapdoored/baffled stock mid-sump, not an 8 qt with kickouts. However, nobody seems to outright sell these things so I don't know where to start with that option.

This is what makes me curious about an accumulator - just a basic type plumbed in through a sandwich plate.

Does this make sense for my application or do the failure risks involved with running the lines to/from the accumulator not make sense for street use?

Here's my two cents. I owned the "Red Brick" aka "Tim's Valiant" for a couple of years and only drove it on the street. It has an Accusump as well as a road race pan. One of the advantages of the Accusump is that you can prime the oil system before you crank it. Great for when the car sits for a long time. The oil lines can leak. I had a one medium size leak that I fixed by re-sealing the connection. The Accumsump makes oil changes a bit more of a task, but not too involved. If you really don't want to mess with a road race pan, it is a good alternative. Spend the money for the electric valve. Makes it much easier to deal with.

I simply welded a baffle inside the pan to somewhat control the oil.

Bang-for-Buck approved?



https://www.bigblockmopar.nl/2016/08/360-engine-update/

I haven't spent the bucks on a MIG yet (I have no idea how to and I'd be teaching myself, so good reason!) but otherwise I would've done that already, indeed. Probably should've noted why I haven't just done that yet..

But you could always pre-fab the baffle and have it welded in place by someone else.
I started out with a simple piece of sheetmetal and trimmed it to fit.
Folded a lip on sides and in the center for reinforcement and tacked it in place. Did some finish welding afterwards.

Had one of these when I was running a 360. Never had an oil starvation problem with spirited driving. Price has gone up a tad though.

https://kevkoracing.com/collections/mopar/products/part-m302-chrysler-stock-location-pans-1

Man, I knew I was forgetting an option when I was circling back to this. That's not a bad price for the features. I should've bought a Kevko pan when I swapped this thing originally. Thanks!

I doubt you'll need an accumulator. It will be hard to find a nice road racing pan for a mopar. I'd think a nice 6qt pan with some trap doors would work well enough.

that is a nice pan and a good price. we paid over $350 for our SBC raod racing pan.

The Milodon pans are pretty nice. They are darn near a custom piece with an off the shelf price.



I've done that on several cars. Even if you don't have a welder, if you trim up a piece of steel sheet fromteh hardware store and have it welded in at the local shop, you are talking about a less than $20 modification to ensure the pick up stays covered.

Too bad MaMopar didn't produce the factory stock oil pans with simple horizontal baffles similar to as shown. I had that done (by a fellow Mopar experienced road racer/autocrosser who showed me his own) to my own oil pan nearly 40 years ago when I began autocrossing. This was the absolute best engine modification ever done to any of my engines -- allows retained oil pressure under hi-g-force cornering, acceleration and deceleration.

The best reason to use an Accusump would be for pre-oiling after long sitting time periods. I actually have a new 3-qt Accusump and most of the required items to install, just never got around to it. Truly, I've done without it for over 40 years of very serious competition AXg (pylon, HSAX/HPDE, etc).

During my current new engine rebuild (small block), I'm considering installing it this time around. Possibly with a ~25 psi valve to activate it while engine is running IF it would ever run below ~25 psi. All considerations being thought of, as well as location and plumbing. Its still a street-driven car, but used primarily for wknd track events (mostly HPDE/HSAX, maybe returning to pylon autocrossing in the future).

I'd like to see some pictures of cars with an Accusump installed -- location, set-up details, etc. Engine bay location adds weight to the front end (not desirable, but convenient). Interior? Trunk? Remote filter location? Electronic solenoid valve location? Activation light?

Mitch, here is a picture of the Accusump in "Tim's Valiant". It has the electronic valve. THe lines run along the passenger side sill and up under the dash, through a plate over the hole where the heater fan used to be. The gauge on the Accusump stays close to the same pressure as the gauge on the dash, so no need to have a valve that opens at 25 psi. If the engine oil pressure drops, the Accusump automatically dumps its contents into the engine.

T/Anks Lilcuda for the pic... IF I had a roll bar setup I'd consider something like that.

Isn't that a Moroso Accumulator in the pic? Exactly the same thing as Canton's Accusump but in a silver can instead of blue.
I wouldn't mount an Accumulator/Accusump on a roll bar like that if I had room further back and lower on the floor as it helps with weight distribution and center of gravity. I mounted mine where the rear bench seat used to be. I don't have a good pic of it but you can see it make a cameo in my camera mount video on YouTube. The AN-12 line is plumbed and runs by the passenger seat to the engine bay.

Yes, I believe it is the Moroso Accumulator. I refer to it as an Accusump incorrectly, like many people refer to all tissues as Kleenex. Not sure why it was mounted that way. I guess so that the gauge was readable by looking over your shoulder. I was never fully comfortable with it in that spot, thinking that a leak could be quite messy and possibly painful if it sprayed around in the passenger compartment, but since I no longer own the car, it's not my problem. :-)

That's an Accusump. It used to be the difference was that Canton's used a schraeder valve for a preload of airpressure behind the piston. IIRC Moroso's had a hemispherical end and that had to be pointed upward. Canton Accusmps's were raw finish for years.

As far as the original question goes, a basic sump baffle as bigblockmopar posted will be fine. The problem with these pans is the relatively shallow sumps - and back wall is worse than front due to the clearance needed for the oilpump.
IMO a long baffle about 1/2 way up the sidewall can also help. These baffles won't trap the oil, but will redirect slosh and splash back into the sump.

Also when using a factory small block windage tray open a couple more louvers on it. That's an old tech bulletin tip and I had class racers tell me it makes a difference at high rpm.

The accussump brings its own quirks. I'm actually not using mine right now. Haven't for a while - although its ready if needed, but does not have differential fill vs empty arrangement. IMO that's important. The electric valve's big advantage is the pressure switch prioritizing the oil to go to the engine first. Tim added the pressure switch and that helped address what had been a problem.

See pic #57 for my solution, far bottle is fire suppression. I took so much heat a decade ago here when I mentioned this solution, of oil pressure lines inside car, that I never brought it again till posting my build thread a few years back. Sounds like times have changed.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbt...tml#Post1553823

Mitch, the Cuda has an Accusump mounted between the seats. Not optimal for car balance or for a street driven car but it works well because it is controlled manually. The line out from the engine goes to the filter mounted where the windshield washer bottle for E bodies is located. This makes sure the Accusump bottle gets clean oil. The line out of the filter has a check valve to prevent back flow from the Accusump into the wrong side of the filter. After the check valve is a T. One side of the T goes to the Accusump and the other side of the T goes to the oil in at the block. Email me outside here if you want more info. Jess

Canton was cool enough to let me be a dealer for them now and as for the electric valve they are promoting their updated Pro Electric Valve kit which has more durable piston design instead of the older rubber diaphragm version which is prone to rupture with high oil pressures

For road racing applications Canton also recommends their 35-40 psi control valve.

Plumbing is easy enough just as Jess described above, just a pain in the ass because of the residual oil contained within the Accusump even though it has been pressurized to dump all the oil back into the oil pan.

Jess -- T/Anks for the info... I'll follow up when ready.

I have an Accusump mounted behind the rear seat in my '65 Coronet. The Accusump is a bit of a hassle but it is nice to have oil pressure during a cold start.

Most cars will be just fine with a good oil pan. Once you start to really push the car hard in the turns you need a good oil pan plus the Accusump. When the car gets really fast you throw all of that stuff away and switch to a dry sump.

Tim's Valiant was on the edge of needing a dry sump. We tried a bunch of different oil pan designs in that car and none of them worked by themselves so we had to add the Accusump. The Accusump is a bandaid but it is better than blowing the engine. The move to a dry sump was just too big of a step to take.

I agree Dry Sump is the way to go on road racing applications. TA2 all have 10 quart dry sumped engines. The issue I ran into dry sump is the oil pan and the stock K-member. I even had a Missile Dry Sump pump back when I was gathering parts for a 572 Predator motor that I sold off.

The stock K-member requires a custom oil pan to made around it as well as a pulley to drive the dry sump pump on some setups such as the Dailey Engineering setup for Gen3 Hemi's, these may not fit easily which will exponentially escalate costs quickly.