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Aluminum oil pan

quiksilvergt

quiksilvergt

New member
I've heard that some models of the 3800 have an aluminum oil pan like the 98 intrigue, and the 06 and up series 3's I wanted to know if they would fit my 01 grand prix, because I was doing an oil change this weekend and noticed that my oil pan was quite rusted, so I pushed on it a little and the bottom was flexing under my fingers, if im going to replace it I only want to do it once.
 


Ive thought about this myself. Didnt the Bonneville have an aluminum pan as well? But Ive 'heard' (take it for what its worth) that in order to use the aluminum pan you needed to have the aluminum cradle as well. But I dont know what truth there is in that.
 
im putting in a l26 block with an aluminum oil pan and i was told the l26 oil pick up tube needed to be used not the l67. Also that the lower engine mount bracket needed to have a 1/4" shaved off
 
I would advise against getting a aluminum oil pan. The aluminum ones tend to be brittle compared to the steel ones and can not withstand any kind of hits that may happen while on the road. A steel one will pretty much bend if it gets hit, thus keeping all the oil and running until you can change it if the dent is bad enough it warrants changing. Just my opinion tho, good luck!!
 
i dont think i have ever heard of a wbody having a problem with scraping the oil pan. its almost covered it sub frame and sits up higher than the subframe so i dont see how it could ever hit
 
You are right, most oil pans are!! I'm not talking about scraping, you wouldn't believe the crazy things that folks have told me on how they busted their oil pan. I've seen cars come into the shop with broken ones from hitting various things (raccoons, mufflers, pot holes) on the road or the parking lot (parking blocks) :th_shakinghead2:

I even had a car come in on a unrelated issue on a tow, and the tow trucker hit the oil pan with his equipment and cracked the oil pan.

Personally I'd stick with the steel one!!
 


I was told that when using the oil pan, you would have to use the aluminum cradle..... this was what I was told.

the aluminum pans can take some abuse... I landed my truck on on it when the front end came down too hard.....spider web cracked it. but other than that they do fine.
 
UR LOSN said:
I was told that when using the oil pan, you would have to use the aluminum cradle..... this was what I was told.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, interesting, did they say why? Just wondering. I would have thought that the oils pans would be relatively the same.
 
Blown97 said:
I would have thought that the oils pans would be relatively the same.
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The aluminum is not as strong at the same thickness as the steel, so it has to be engineered differently also:

The oil pan in the 06+ is structural, just like the newer GM V8's (I think Ls2 included) The added strength helps stiffen-up the bottom of the block (not that the 3800 really needs it though....)
 


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