426 windage tray issues

While chasing down an oil leak last month I installed one of those Mancini rear main seals - leaks worse now but not the topic here. While I had the oil pan off, I thought it would be a good idea to swap the original style windage tray w/2 gaskets over to the one-piece tray/gasket combo. There were a few scratches on the steel tray from where the connecting rod hardware had hit it, and a previous owner dimpled the areas for extra clearance. Anyway, I assumed that maybe the tray was a little bent and that was an easy fix at the time. So, I install the one-piece tray and it is so much nicer than mucking around with the extra gaskets and such. When I started the car up it sounds like a bunch of drummers going at it in the oil pan. You can certainly feel the thumping/vibrations with your hand on the bottom of the pan. Has anyone else come across this before? Is this not an issue with the 440 even with the same 3.75" stroke but smaller rod hardware? I'm thinking now that perhaps I need to change it out for the deeper one-piece designed for a 4.15" stroke to get the extra clearance. Thoughts?

68jim

Sounds like you need to check the rotating parts to the tray clearances before installing the oil pan
I do that on all of my stroker motor builds while the motor is on the engine stand, I roll the motor over and look through the tray while rotating the motor over in 90 degree increments to make sure nothing hits. I normally use a stock Mopar brand steel windage tray with strokes up to 4.25 with BB chevy rod journals sizes and steel H and I beam rods with none hitting so far
I can't remember on using a 4.150 stroke crank with stock Mopar rod journals sizes and steel rods but I think they clear also
You can also check that with the timing cover off with the oil pan on and use a flashlight or some other additional lighting

Cab,

Thanks for chiming in. I will go ahead and order the one-piece used with the 4.15" stroke. Once I drop the pan again I will mock up to see what is going on. The one-piece and the steel windage tray had the same height but then you have to add in the thickness of the gasket which drops the steel tray lower into the pan. The plastic one can't be tweaked like the steel one so it either fits or it don't. The only other option I see would be to create small slots in the plastic pan to allow clearance for the rod hardware...

68jim

Update from this weekend's efforts - I dropped the pan again and the plastic tray had several gouges, which is pretty much as I expected. I got a new tray from Jegs to fit for a 4.15" stroker crank. Mocking it up showed that it had plenty of extra clearance so good to go. Firing the motor up afterwards had good results and no more drumming from the bottom end. The rear main seal issue was corrected by removing the billet aftermarket unit and putting the factory style back in...no more leaks! I took some pictures of the rod hardware but I have no idea if the bolts are stock or aftermarket. The motor was built about 33 years ago so not sure what was available back then. I wonder if this might be more of a Hemi issue since never had it on any 440 previously.

68jim

Sounds like it is an old-school build with a 4.150 stroke and Mopar size rods. Those old strokers used up a lot of volume in the crankcase. A lot of aftermarket parts are now designed for strokers with the newer 2.200 rods.

Andy - thanks for chiming in. Pretty sure it is not a stroker crank since I can see the part number stamped on a counterweight vertically (2780533), that crosses over to a stock hemi crankshaft. One thing I did notice is that the plastic one and the stock steel tray have the identical height (best I could measure) The steel one ends up farther down in the pan a little bit since it also has a gasket in-between the tray and the block. Looked like I picked up about 3/16" extra clearance with the deeper tray.

68jim

The rod bolt with the dimple on the end, it probably has them on both ends, is an aftermarket bolt. The dimple, I believe, is to retain a bolt stretch gauge better .

That's bizarre. By all rights either one should work and the don't.

I wonder how those compare to the production style tray.

In 2004 I bought a stock 426 Hemi crank, rods and windage tray from Ma Mopar. The rods hit the windage tray. Which I thought would be impossible.

On my latest Hemi build I decided to use the new tray and after rotating the engine by hand I noticed it was scraping the crank. I took a cutoff wheel and made slots where the rods were hitting and that cured it.

Hemi rods-bolts ARE bigger than 440 rods. Aren’t deeper trays going against the grain for oil issues (to far from crank)? A hall peen hammer will fix those marks in tray, I’d do that first.

Are those HEMI rods? The rod nuts look larger than normal or is it just the camera angle

Gus

Crossbolted maincaps , looks like a hemi.

The previous owner did just that except with a punch (first picture - you can see the scratch in the punch marks) The whole idea was to get rid of the tray with 2 gasket combo while I had things opened up to fix the leaking rear main seal issue. I did consider cutting notches in the plastic tray and I'm sure it would have worked OK but that also would have been a lot easier with the motor upside down on a stand vice installed in the car. JEGS had the stroker tray on sale and it was a decent deal, so I went that route. Best I could measure with the stroker tray was that I now had about 1/8" to 3/16" clearance. Not sure what the factory intended as far as rod/hardware clearance to the windage tray but think I'm OK with this arrangement. One thing I did notice about the damage on both trays was that it was more pronounced towards the rear of the motor - Evidently the crank centerline is not exactly parallel to the bottom rail?? Or more likely it may have been how the trays were manufactured?? The bigger issue I see is that the new plastic trays do not account for the extra depth you gain with a gasket. The plastic one-piece and the steel factory tray had identical heights when set up side by side.

Yes, this is a Hemi and not a 426 Wedge - good eye catching the cross-bolted main...

jim