Well Darn!!! problem found

Today I was changing the oil in my Dart and after it all drained out I cut a slim strip of a clean rag and pit it on a wire to reach in the drain plug hole and wipe the bottom of the pan. I didn't find anything alarming but what I did find is that the pick tube is loose in the (SB) oil pump. When I put it up for the winter the oil pressure was still 60 psi hot at cruise and 30 psi at idle so I don't think anything is hurt. The engine will have to come out so I can fix it. I'm thinking that I'll fab some sort of tab to one of the main studs to prevent this from happening again, plus I'll check the bearings while the pan is off. I've built several small blocks over the years and never had this issue.

You may be able to drop the pan by supporting the engine with a 6×4 long enough to span the inner fenderwells, and use tie down straps to hold the motor up so you can drop the k frame enough to get the pan off. I haven't done it with all the stock steering gear still in place, so it might require dropping the drag link and disconecting the steering wheel. This is assuming you have a stock k frame of course😀

How deep is the pan.. sounds like a lot of work to drop the pan.. I dont
have to do anything to drop my pan with struts.. pull the pan bolts and
it can fall off

I had the same problem a few years ago on my old 360. Lost oil pressure under any acceleration or braking. A friend of mine and i pulled the motor, fixed it, and put it back in about 4-5 hours. Not my idea of fun but we looked at getting the milodon pan off in the car and it was quickly apparent that pulling the engine would be the easiest thing to do.

Yep, I have a Milodon pan too. I've looked it over and think pulling it is the best move. Mike if it had a strut front the pan would already be off.

This why I always trim the K frame now. Oil pan slides right out.
Doug

Hind sight is always 20/20. Had I thought about it I would've trimmed and boxed the K member before I painted it 10 years ago. Live and learn I suppose.

I drop the pan on my SB Duster without pulling the motor, and it's a huge 10-quart monster.
The trick is to turn the crank a little so the counterweight clears the front of the pan as you slide it back.
There's a position where it clears, and once you find it, mark your balancer accordingly.

What year Dart?
I've removed more than one oil pan off of the 1967 and later A bodies with273,318, 340 and probably a 360 C.I.or two with the motor in the car, drop the steering center link, idler arm and passenger side tie rod and slide them out of your way and remove the oil pan bolts up to remove the oil pan
I've also heard bad things about Milidon welded extended oil pick up for their deep center sump pan breaking the welds

Topside, that trick with the crank throws has worked for me for years,
and I mean YEARS, as I am 77!!

Joe

Also cheek the inside of every brandnew milodon pickup tube as the two i got were rusty inside just past the welded on threaded end, got a replacement and it was rusty aswell, had to submerge it in a molasses bath to eat the rust.

Here's the extended pick-up that comes with the Kevco oil pan.
It has a bracket to support it on a main cap bolt.
Actually Kevco sells a new bolt with a stud portion to fit that bracket and secure it with a nut.

I finally got around to pulling the pan, thank goodness my Hedman headers come apart in several pieces. The Milodon pick up broke off in the pump about 1/8-3/16" from the end of the tube. Now the problem is getting the broke part out of my pump, I tried a large ease out but I think it made it worse.

Photos.

The Milodon pick up tubes seem to be pretty fragile.

I had a BB one break just about like that while I was installing it.

Whatever they’re using for the threaded area seems to be thinner and more brittle than the OE type of tube.

I had one break on a 340 at high rpm in that same place

This one broke off in the block on my hemi a year ago. Been in there for years so all I could think of was vibration?
Broke off in the same place as yours.
I used one of the extractors that had a square end on it to remove it. A little different than an easy out.

there are tools that act like easy outs that are for extracting pipe nipples, but i haven't seen any smaller than for 3/4" pipe.
one of the main reasons [in my opinion] those pickups break there, is the tube is thinner wall thickness than the factory pickup, and after the thread is cut, it makes the wall thickness that much thinner. add the fact there is [usually] no support for the bottom or the tube itself, and the least vibration starts the cracking effect.

It doesn't help matters that with tapered pipe thread and the pick-up has to end up in a certain position. Should I try one more turn or not. WELL DO YOU FEEL LUCKY.??? Loose or over-tight.

I think part of the problem with the threads is most (if not all) threads we see now are cut
instead of the alternative of rolled threads, which are stronger and don't remove any material.

Of course as mentioned, many aftermarket pick-ups can't touch the bottom of the pan
to operate effectively.
The factory big block pick-ups are designed to have a little interference with the pan which
Ma probably figured out a looongg time ago helped add some stability to the connection.

My 2 cents...Joe

I cutt the threaded adapter off the actual pickup tube. Mill/ drill the inlet of the pump all the way into pump. Then I just slip the tube in however far I want it in the housing and silicon bronze tig it to the pump housing. Hot ticket, gets rid of the bottle neck in the pump, tube, and fixes the potential prob the op had. This is what I have done to all of our good sb stuff for yrs, works great. The silicon bronze is high vibration proof. No chance of ever breaking the weld.

The pick up is about 1/4" off the floor of the pan, I'm thinking I'll fab up something to go on it to rest on the bottom of the pan. I did tig braze a good spot weld on it with silicon bronze.