Oil Management in Olds Engines

Joe Elias

The only six-quart oil pan available is from the early Toronado; it also requires a special oil pickup. The 350DX engine used six quarts of oil: 4 quarts in pan, 1 quart in filter and 1 quart in engine oil cooler. The Toronado pan will fit your car, but why add more oil? The extra oil whipping against the crank foams the oil and creates a drag on the crank. For my NHRA Stock eliminator engines, I either use the factory 5-quart or diesel 4-quart pans, which I send to Stef's for installation of a full-length windage tray and crank wiper. The Olds engine, at any given RPM, only holds a maximum of 2.4 quarts of oil, plus 1 quart in the filter. Any more oil is wasted in windage losses.

One of my customers used to run a 394 CID, stroked Chevy small block making 885 hp; this engine has an external pump, (no dry sump), and the oil capacity was only 5.5 quarts of oil. This engine had a maximum rpm of 10,200 and the engine never suffered spun bearings or any other failures related to lubrication.

Also, I do not use high volume oil pumps on any of my engines, it costs too much hp to rotate a HV oil pump, and it can also create spark scatter on the distributor due to higher loads on the shaft.

Joe