Is valley pan necessary?

[soundguy]

I am at stage of putting everything back together after tearing down for new HG's. I'm wondering thou do I need to put the valley pan back on? I've read many times of peeps going without, but that is on setups faster than mine. What is the pan doing? doesnt seem to do more than keep the bottom of intake manifold from building up oil film. I plan to bolt down the intake manifold to heads before I torque down the head bolts, so not having to try to keep that thing alighned would make things alot easier. But would there be any side effects of not having it?

 

[Squid4life]

I am sure someone else with more insight will reply, but my first reason for using it would be to keep hot oil off the bottom of the intake. Cooler intake charge in general makes for more performance, hence the cold air intake, intercooler, etc. Hope this helps, just my input....

Squid

 

[Dusty Bradford]

My #1 reason for wanting the valley pan is to keep oil from getting to the pcv valve and being sucked into the intake. The pan helps sheild oil from getting close to the pcv valve. On our motors the heat really isn't much of a factor since the runners are raised up off the floor of the intake.

 

[Mac in SD]

I don't think bolting down the intake manifold before you torque the heads is a good idea, anyway. And the valley pan-style gasket sort of "snaps in place" anyway. I'd leave it in just to keep the oil off the bottm of the manifold.

 

[ajt86]

i didnt use a valley pan when i did my cam swap- when i pulled the intake off 6 months later there wasnt any oil on the bottom of the intake

 

[1FASTV6]

No valley pan here. I made a shield to cover the PCV from the oil. You can also buy it from Summit or Jegs under Moroso part# 68790.