Is the oil slinger absolutely necessary ? I just completed a cam swap and forgot to reinstall it. The oil pan to front cover gasket is sealed with "Right Stuff" and I know when I take it apart that gasket is going to be shot.
When I went through my 430, I was SO proud when I tightened the last bolt on a beautiful engine. My buddy came over to take a look, and picked up the oil slinger that I’d left on the bench. “Forget something?” he asked, then told me that if I thought it was optional, go ahead and break the engine in without it. He chuckled to himself as he walked away. I tore apart a masterpiece, and learned a valuable lesson. If GM’s engineers thought it wasn’t necessary, it would’ve been designed out of existence in subsequent years by the bean counters. It wasn’t.
Jeff, I haven’t used one on my motors for the last 15 years and haven’t seen any issues. And that includes breaking in a couple of hydraulic and solid cams. But I don’t put a ton of street miles on them and I know you won’t as well. Looking forward to seeing the new car out next year!
I'm not saying you need it or not, however I'm curious. What is it's design? What is it supposed to do?
The oil slinger has two functions The most important function was to keep oil splash away from the front rope seal. It's secondary function is to oil the timing chain, distributor and cam gears, by spraying the oil that comes off the front main. How effective this is, can be questioned.. I put them in, as it sets the spacing correctly for the balancer... and then I add more oiling to the front of the engine... I learned when I ran the by-pass from a TA scavenger plate to a fitting in the fuel pump block off plate, that we really don't have enough oiling going on up front. That motor was pumping oil at the timing chain like a fire hose... and it was a revelelation at the first freshen up... I learned that we don't have enough chain oiling, that is why our big dollar timing chains are get loose so fast... After 500 passes on this race motor, with serious valvesprings, that chain was as tight as the day it was put on.. NEVER seen anything like it.. in fact, the same chain is still on that engine now, Billet heads and all... not a thing wrong with it. I beleive that chain has about 800 passes on it, and is now working 900 lbs valve springs. Would I take it apart to install it, if it were mine?... If I have a good neoprene seal in the front cover, then probably not... set it aside and put it back in, the next time it's apart. JW
