212 Engine - Grooves in Second Oil Pan

longlivelance

We dropped the oil pans off of our 46 pickup this past weekend. In the second, smaller pan, there are grooves in the 2 - 5 dips on it. Are these grooves normal? Or a symptom of a potential issue? I saw another member on the FB group with the same thing, and question. Any info is appreciated, Thanks!

BigSky

I am not seeing what your talking about on your pan, any chance you can point to it or circle it.  Here’s a pic of my upper tray if it helps.

longlivelance

Seeing them on yours, so thinking they are normal. Here they are circled.

 

Geoff

It's easy for your eyes to play tricks when looking vertically down on a pic like this.  However, once getting the perspective right, I see that it appears that the reservoirs have had  indentations hammered into them.   Nobody appears to understand what these reservoirs, with the two holes in the top,  are for.   They fill up with oil, and I think they are designed to overflow when cornering, through centrifugal force, and keep the level  of the trough replenished.  However,  whenever I have tried cleaning these out, they are filled with black sludge, and  much cleaning out with kerosene, air, and scraping with a bent wire, does the trick,  Of course when changing g oil in   one of these motors, the tray assembly is niver drained, so there is always  about a quart or more of dirty oil left to mix in with the new.   Another Hudson Idiosyncrasy!  

stbryson

Hello,

I think what people are seeing as grooves are actually the welds around the perimeter of the two raised oval pieces.  I have two NOS 212 CID upper trays that look exactly the same.  

Question - in this post's pictures, one tray has a small circular screen in the center of the tray, while the other one doesn't.  Does anyone know when/why the change was made?  Of the two NOS trays I have, one has the screen, while the other doesn't.  I don't see any other differences between the two trays.

BigSky

As Geoff said there was a lot of crud in the area with the two holes.  I tried all sorts of chemicals without much luck.  The best thing was when I propped it up on its side then used my air gun to give it some short bursts of air.  Eventually I was able to get it all out that area and it was a messy process!

longlivelance

Thanks for the info and advice everyone! I am happy to hear those grooves are normal and shared that info with the other person as well. I'll be cleaning mine up this weekend, and appreciate the advice and experiences doing so. Hoping to make quick work of it with this information.