Canton (15-780) 4.6L 3V Oil Pan

tmcolegr

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The finish line is in sight but not until a few more obstacles are overcome...

Take a look at this picture of the 4.6L 3V S197 OEM oil pan. Notice the location of the relief in the oil pan for the steering rack. Roughly 4.5" from the front of the sump
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Now look at the location of the relief in the Canton oil pan. Roughly 3.5" from the front of the sump
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With the relief in the Canton oil pan in this location on our 4.6L 3V S197s and using a BMR K-Member with 1/2" lowered mounts, clearance between the pan and steering rack is reduced to about .1875". Enough not to be a problem, but not nearly what the clearance should have been if the relief was in the correct location - thank you Canton
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By now it is clear the OEM pan that Canton starts out with is not a 4.6L 3V pan for our S197s - too many issues. Rather I believe it to be a generic 4.6L/5.4L 2V, 3V, 4V one size fits all - who knows the exact application

Next issue, notice the tabs (red arrows) on the RH side of the pan for securing the wiring harness for the starter switch terminal and engine oil temp sensor
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The Canton pan does not have these tabs, so there is nothing to secure the wiring harness. This too can be overcome by carefully opening up the OEM harness and installing new loom and wrapping with electrical tape - same as the OEM harness was. None of these wires were cut or spliced. Here's how I secured the rerouted harness
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Sometimes a picture's worth a 1,000 words. These 2 pictures were taken by shining mini LED flash light through the oil drain plug hole and sighting the camera through the 1/2" NPT hole for the oil temp sensor. Look closely, I know it's dark, but you can clearly see the clearance between the oil pump pickup tube and the oil pan - seeing is believing.
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another one...
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I installed a temperature recorder on the RH side of the oil pan sump. This temperature recorder will turn black at the highest temp the engine oil has reached. Temperature recorder was $3.
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This picture was taken out of shear frustration
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Lastly I torqued the oil pan magnetic drain plug to 30 lb. ft.

PS: as Dysan mentioned in a previous post, you won't be removing the torque converter bolts/nuts through the flex plate cover on the transmission bell housing anymore as the oil pan sump completely obscures the opening. The access hole in the LH side of the block will be the opening that will have to be used.

I'll post several pictures of the completed install tomorrow.
 
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tmcolegr

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:roflmao:
I can empathize with the frustration of spending money for the right part only to find out it needs more than a little tweaking.

The frustrating part is I called Canton prior to purchasing this pan and was assured it was a "direct replacement" (bolt and go) without any modifications required.
 
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tmcolegr

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with the exception of filling the engine with oil, the oil pan installation is complete. For those of you considering this pan, the following pictures will give you some idea of the clearance you will have between the oil pan and headers (Kooks), steering rack, automatic transmission cooler lines, BMR K-Member with lowered mounts, transmission case, etc.

Hopefully Canton's pan won't leak. I'll post how many qts of oil the oil pan actually holds once I fill the engine with oil
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tmcolegr

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Looks good. I haven't had any leaking issues other than the drain plug washer.

I hope the pan (not the gasket) doesn't leak - but I wouldn't bet on anything at this point.

Forgot to mention yesterday I placed a call to Canton's Tech Support to voice my concerns - not complaints. That was 15 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
 

tmcolegr

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In all fairness, the guy was a good listener and sounded like he was taking notes, but more than once I was told "you're the only one to have ever run into these issues - we have hundreds of these pans in production and no one else has ever called to bring this to our attention."

I guess that all could be true. Perhaps everyone else considers these issues to be acceptable with an aftermarket performance part.
 
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dysan

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I believe the only modding that needed to be done to mine was clearancing the oil pickup tube by heating and bending it. I did not do the install, Tillman Speed did and that's the only thing they told me that had to be done.

They did drop my k-member to put it in though.
 

tmcolegr

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I believe the only modding that needed to be done to mine was clearancing the oil pickup tube by heating and bending it. I did not do the install, Tillman Speed did and that's the only thing they told me that had to be done.

They did drop my k-member to put it in though.

When I spoke to Canton they did state the slosh baffle had recently been redesigned for better oil control. Sounded like the opening for the pickup tube in the slosh baffle had been made smaller. This may be why I had the issues I encountered requiring the slosh baffle to be modified.
 

tmcolegr

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Added 7 qts of oil. Brought the oil level to the middle of the normal zone on the dipstick. Started up the engine to fill the filter. After allowing the oil to drain back down into the oil pan, 1 additional qt. brought the oil level within 1/8" of the full mark on the dipstick.

The additional 2 qts of oil represents a 33% increase in oil capacity when compared to the stock oil pan.

Cold idle startup oil pressure - 85 psi (mechanical gauge)
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