Milodon windage tray will NOT work with stock "402" pan on a 440

[69RTSEV88]

Somewhere along the way my 69 R/T's 440 lost its factory windage tray so while I had the pan off to try and seal up the rear main seal housing I decided to add a windage tray back in there.  Called around and all the big parts houses were backordered on the stock style Mopar tray.  I called Mancini's and they too were backordered, but the guy said that they had Milodon part # 32000 in stock which would work fine on a stock motor, and it was a more efficient design.  How could I go wrong?  Well guess what, my curved stock oil pump pick up which is necessary to use with the stock "402" pan pushed up just enough on the milodon tray so that it hit rod bolts on 4 out of 8 rods.  I turned the engine over by hand several times b4 I started it and nothing made any noised or binded up,  but holy-hell when I started it up it sounded like a sewing machine.  Thankfully the engine was only run for a few minutes at idle.  So if you have a big block with a 402 stock pan and a curved pump p/u forget about the Milodon windage tray.  For now I'll run it without a tray until the Mopar trays come back into stock.

[Challenger340]

That sucks ! Sorry to hear what happened.

I've used the Milodon Tray in the past, they do require some "adjustments" and bending of the stock Oil Pan Pickup, to fine tune the distances between the Bottom of the Pan, and the curvatures to correct for non-interference of the Tray against the crank.

That said,
I've had to do the same things with the Mopar trays as well, so you may not be any further ahead when the Mopar Tray becomes available ?

[69RTSEV88]

What does the stock original windage tray look like?  Does anyone have a pic of one for a BB.  I assumed that the current Mopar Performance tray was similar to the original and wouldn't require any tweeking to make it work properly.  Maybe i'm wrong!!!

[ACUDANUT]

 The only issue is the pick-up tube right ?  You can cut it out/modify the metal that's in the way to "make it work".

[firefighter3931]

What does the stock original windage tray look like?  Does anyone have a pic of one for a BB.  I assumed that the current Mopar Performance tray was similar to the original and wouldn't require any tweeking to make it work properly.  Maybe i'm wrong!!!

Here's a pic of the MP windage tray which is basicly a copy of the stock piece. The Milodon tray has better oil drainback due to the additional louvers. You can just trim out the necessary sheet metal on the Milodon part and make it work. That's what i would do. 

That being said : I've used the MP tray with a 6 qt Hemi pan and spun the Motor up to 6500 numerous times at the track and never had any oil pressure issues. With a smaller capacity pan like the 402 i would feel more comfortable with the Milodon tray if i were planning to beat on it hard.  The Hemi pan is all i'll use now...it fits perfectly in a 2nd gen chassis and will not bottom out because it doesn't hang lower than the K-frame. Capacity is 7 qts (with filter) and it is well baffled for good oil control on acceleration/deceleration. 



Ron

[69RTSEV88]

Well Ron, I took your advice and trimmed the Milodon tray to clear the curved pump pickup and reinstalled it.  This time I visually checked the clearance between the tray & the rods and all came out fine.  Buttoned it back up and its runs fine now.  So I'll have to restate my initial post that you CAN use the Milodon tray with a stock 402 pan & curved P/U BUT you must enlarge the hole for the P/U to clear the tray.  Thanks for the advice!!!

[ACUDANUT]

 Hey, I said it first.

[firefighter3931]

Hey, I said it first.

Yes you did...and it was the correct advice 

Well Ron, I took your advice and trimmed the Milodon tray to clear the curved pump pickup and reinstalled it.  This time I visually checked the clearance between the tray & the rods and all came out fine.  Buttoned it back up and its runs fine now.  So I'll have to restate my initial post that you CAN use the Milodon tray with a stock 402 pan & curved P/U BUT you must enlarge the hole for the P/U to clear the tray.  Thanks for the advice!!!

Glad it worked out. The pickup tube interferance was pushing the tray up into the rotating assembly....a little trimming fixed the problem. 



Ron

[kcederwall08]

I had a similar issue with a 440 source windage tray, but i switched over to the one that mancini sells, and theres no more problems now The 440 source one wouldnt even sit flat on the oilpan without cutting it either..