Why is the panrail milled? (pic)

[Lunkan]

"The Swede" and I took a closer look at the block today and noticed that the pan rail was milled on one side. We couldn´t find out why it´s like that, the rods doesn´t even come close to it... Any of You guys have a clue or know why?

Thanks,
//Andreas

 

[BlownV6]

pan rails

on some later drag race engines from the big name builders , they did all kinds of tricks to try to get the oil away from the crank they wanted the oil to spin off the crank and not hit it again which would take HP away from a rotating assembly that is turning 8500 to 10000 rpm. I have heard that some of these mods were worth about 8 HP!! to a carb motor making around 600 HP that is a big gain to a turbo motor its probally not noticable!! mike

 

[Ron Tarabori]

My guess too Mike. Windage was a big thing and with a dry sump you want the oil in the pan as quick as possible so the scavenge pickups can get it out and back to the tank. You don't want it building up on the top of the pan rail.

 

[Lunkan]

Oh, then Uffe´s guess wasn´t that bad at all. Thanks for clearing it up guys.

//Andreas