Hey Guys I wanted to share some pics of the Stef's wet sump BBB pan/pickup that I that I just received to fit the Finishline Halo girdle. Since I already had a trimmed to fit AMP crank scraper and intended to re-use it, Stef's designed and built the pan to incorporate it: Specs: Aluminum .090 with .250" pan rails Extra front and rear sump support plates Trap door with deaeration ports Acceleration baffle Deceleration baffle Teflon coated unidirectional screen over sump Matching heavy wall tube pickup to clear halo So far the fit has been good with just some minor fitting adjustment, considering the information was mostly photo's of the halo install with some minor measurements Nice piece.:TU: Tom
Hey Tom, Not to get off the subject but whats the halo rated for hp, I'm going to build a higher horsepower Motor I'm going to want the same Halo and pan setup..
Very nice...... Mine didn't work out so well. They didn't tell me that it was fabricated for use with a block girdle....and I didn't have one. Had to do LOTS of grinding on the crank scraper, etc to get it to work.
Eric, I don't know what the max hp for the Straightline Halo is but there have been guys in the 700 + hp range sucessfully running just this. Bob At Finishline can probably help you on this. BQuick, I remember Mike from TA saying he sent one one of his block girdles to Stef's, so they do custom make for something with block girdles, and you may have ended up with one of those, but they do also have a regular depth pans style under the "Nostalgia Series". They also have a "Heads up Fastest car Series" which I don't know about, since mine was based on the 1075 Nostalgia platform without that integral scraper. They did fax me a shop drawing to which I made a simple cardboard checking templete before anything went into fabrication. The only issues I had were a close inside weld at the front against the main stud nut (6 point) and a very minor Halo interference that a little sanding wheel chamfering took care of. Regardless with custom piece interfacing you should still recheck everything with your own block and final rotating assembly in place. In my case it was a "Not Bad" experience, considering Stef's did not have my halo for their block check and the fab of the custom pickup tube. Tom
Tom, does your pan bolt to the front cover? Mine has a reverse lip....ended up just siliconing the front. I really should have sent it back but they said after I ground on it it was mine. But...why did I have to grind on it? Cuz it was the wrong one.:spank: Bruce
Then you'd be drilling through the outer lip then again through the inner lip. Don't think that would work:Smarty: I'll take a pic.....
There's been a lot of variations on these pans though the years. I'll be the first to admit the front section of the Buick pan is a PITA to build! I however would never build one without the two front holes. I developed a good design that utilizes the two front bolts and it works and fits good, but it did require a lot of R&D. I'm sure Stef's does the best they can but they don't specialize in Buicks or race Buicks themselves. They build a decent pan, but I always try to make mine the best that they can be. I see a lot of improvements in Tom's Stef's pan that were not there several years ago. Thanks, Steve
The Stef's pan I have is similar to Steve's in a two front bolt design and does bolt to the cover. Tom
Pic of the current front bolt up of the front 2 bolt Stef Pan. The 5/16 " 12 point hardware comes with the assembly. Tom
Some more Pics under screen of the Stef's / AMP baffle oil mangement system to keep the oil where it should be and to minimize horsepower loss within the constraints of a wet sump street strip system. The trapdoor and 6 hole dearation assembly. Position and size of the acceleration rear baffle and deceleration front baffle. The 3rd pic is the AMP crank scraper mounting on the block and is also showing the rearward pickup location. Tom
Tom, Some things to consider before mounting the pan to the block. First, I see no provision for the dipstick tube. You need a notch in the pan rail as well as a hole in the screen. Better check that if you wish to use a dipstick. Second, Please tell me that there is a support tab on the pickup tube? If not I would strongly suggest putting one on! Weld a small tab to the pickup and mount it to the halo. With that long and heavy pickup you really need a support. Here are a few pictures of the pan I just finished yesterday. It's a road race type pan with side kickouts, but should still be a good comparison. Steve
Bruce, As I stated earlier, the front of the Buick pan is a pain to build. I didn't know Stef's was building them that way at one point, but I must admit I was building them with the same construction for a while. I'm sure their reason was the same as mine; to simply make it quicker and easier to build. But what I did that Stef's didn't do was to press fit steel inserts into the front pan rail from the inside that were threaded 1/4-20. Then what you did was use 1/4" bolts and go thru the timing cover and into the tapped inserts. This allowed you to attach the front pan rail with out modifying the timing cover. Although it made the construction of the pan a little easier, in the end it just wasn't the type of shortcut that I wanted to take. Since then I developed a better way to build the front area without it being a separate project each and every time I build a pan. You could still modify your pan that way. I still have some threaded and knurled inserts left over. PM me if your interested in doing this conversion. Steve
By looking at the pictures, the way I would fix is so I could put two bolts through the pan is to weld about (can't be sure without measuring) an one inch thick wall piece of pipe after drilling two different size holes in the pan/lip. One size the bolt size the other the outter pipe size. Weld the outter and inner so it will not leak.
Michael, can't do it. Look at the angle of the bolts and follow the centerline. By the time you use a tube that's large enough, you will come way too close to the front main bearing cap. It's easy to picture solutions in your head, believe me I do it all the time, but when you actually lay them out in CAD or start building pieces, you soon realize it's not going to work. I've been doing these pans for well over 20 years. I definitely don't have all the answers or know everything there is to know about Buick pans. If I come across an idea that's new I'll certainly give it a try, but this one's been looked at before. Thanks! Steve
