Road Race/Autocross/Pro Touring oil pan mods for 472/500

[CadVetteStang]

Road Race Autocross Pro Touring oil pan mods for 368, 425, 472 and 500

I found a professional road race oil pan builder who has a Caddy motor in his shop and who can handle the mods necessary to turn your stock big block Caddy pan into a road racing pan with trap doors and even extra capacity; for everything involved in the modifications, his prices are not that bad either.

If your application involves hard cornering your going to experience oil starvation when the lateral acceleration forces cause the oil to slide up the side of the pan. When racing my 70 Eldorado, I had to keep a close watch on the oil pressure gage and back off of the throttle or unwind the steering wheel when I saw the needle begin to fall. Adding an extra quart helped some, but even in the stock Eldo with the deep rear sump pan, I could slosh the oil away from the pickup going around the pylons or also make the needle drop from 35 PSI to zero when taking an off ramp and circling back under the interstate bridge while pushing the car to its traction limits.

With intentions to swap this engine into a sports car capable of breaking 1 G lateral acceleration, part of my search was to find a road racing oil pan (or someone who could design a serious oil baffle and trap door system to take the guess work out of a DIY job in that area). Still, my goal was to save money by using a stationary pickup tube.

In my search, I found Armondo Rodriguez

Here is a quote from his web site:

“I'm Armando Rodriguez. I have 30 years of professional experience. I've been making racing oil pans since 1977. I was the oil pan welder for Blum's Racing Enterprises from 1980-1990. Then I went to work for ten years at AVIAID, a leading racing oil pan and oil pump manufacturer. In 2001, I started my own company, AR Oil Pans. I can make oil pans for Circle Track, Road Race, Drag, Marine, Street driving and Show Cars -- you name it! Small and big block Chevy, small and big block Ford, imports, engines with turbos and superchargers -- any car that has an oil pan, I can make a custom pan for you! I can also build you a dry sump system -- the ultimate in racing engine lubrication.”

When I asked him about making a pan for a Cadillac 500, his response was he could and that he had one of those engines in his shop already. I told him that if he kept his price low enough, I’d pass the word on to the rest of the Cadillac community; this was his estimate:

Armando, “I think that I can put trap doors modify the pickup and a make a windage tray for a stock pan for $200.00

With increased capacity, trap doors and windage tray it would be about $380.00.”

This is his website: if you use him for your Cadillac (or any other application) and you discovered him by reading this post, then please let him know that Cody G. Carson sent you.

http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/flats/1624/

At this time, I have not yet used his services, but I do plan to send him one of my oil pans for modification. If you have used him in the past, or if you send a pan to him because of this thread, please post pics of his work and give feedback. Also, if you know of anyone else who offers a custom oil pan for the bid Cad (cornering – not drag racing) then please post that info in this thread also.

Cody G. Carson