JapanGT

I recently ported my Streetmaster inlet manifold and then after a good clean,
installed it with new gaskets and it came out very nice. But I realised that I did
not reinstall the valley pan. [:@]Anyway I did some searching to find what the
valley pan actually does and it seems that it is meant to keep oil off the bottom
of the manifold ie hot oil heating the manifold.

Now I also intalled Edelbrock heads. The old heads had an exhaust balance
port that ran through the manifold between the heads. The Edelbrock heads
do not have that port. So my thinking is that, the elimination of the balance
port will have a significant effect on manifold temp, more so I expect than any
effect of splashing oil ( which I can't quite understand as the block has two
thin slits on either side so the amount of oil that could be splashed through
those slots seems minimal).

So I am thinking not to bother pulling the manifold and leave the valley pan out.

My questions.......... Does the valley pan play any part in the oil circulation? I ask
because there are indents near the tappet locations.

Would leaving the valley pan out really cause the inlet manifold to run much hotter?

Jav

67mustang302

As far as oiling I couldn't tell you, not very familiar with big blocks. But if the intake manifold is aluminum it won't matter, aluminum heads conducting heat to an aluminum intake will heat the intake up quickly. An iron intake will heat up as well, but will take longer. The oil is going to be a similar temperature as the engine, so I doubt it'll make a difference in intake temperature. Carb'd intakes actually need heat to function properly(which is why iron intakes had crossovers and the heads supplied exhaust gas for heating, or sometimes coolant crossovers were used), the heat helps to vaporize the fuel before combustion, liquid gasoline won't burn worth a crap. If you want to get an idea of how much heat the fuel absorbs, run the engine till it's fully warm and while it's running you can shoot the intake with a temp gun while revving it and record the temp. Then shut it off and check the temp again. It'll keep going up and up until it reaches the same temp as the heads/block. The fuel pulls the heat from the intake to vaporize, and keeps the intake much cooler than the engine in the process, if it's too cool then the fuel won't vaporize effectively and it'll run like crap(think old iron intakes with carbon clogged heat crossovers, then run like poo when they're cold).

390bigblock1

i forgot to put mine back in too, when i was doing a head rebuild, didnt notice for 2 weeks, and couldnt tell a differance, when it was running in the garage. im hoping it doesnt cause any damage.

JapanGT

Thanks for the feedback. Will leave it out and see how things go. The manifold is an aluminum type and I did read on another forum
just recently, that others have also done the same ( forgot to putthe valley panback )with no ill effect.

Just wanted to mention, I purchased three manifold to head gasket sets. Two were FelPro. One of them had adhesive on the base
of the cork, front and rear gaskets. It is the best type IMHO. The other type squeezed out when I tightened up the manifold. I know
leaving the gasket gue/gasket sita bit longerwould have helped, but after I used the gaskets with the adhesive
on them, I think they are so much better. They never moved when the manifold was bolted down. And it looks like a nice seal with
some gasket goo on top.

Jav