Oil pan

[KW76]

I am looking to find an oil pan for my 76 bronco 302. Toms bronco has a decent looking kit ( kinda spendy) however the site says it will not work with stock exhaust manifolds. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Jdgephar]

My guess would be the driver's side dipstick tube.

 

[Broncobowsher]

What engine? Asking mainly for dipstick reasons. Stock Bronco had a pan mounted passenger side dipstick. Dipstick followed the pan. Sometime in the 80's the dipstick moved to block mounted on the driver's side. I'm pretty much ignoring the early car setups that had the dipstick in the timing cover for the front sump pan.

Mixing and matching parts, you could have as many as 3 dipsticks and as few as zero.

If you have a late model block with the dipstick on the driver's side, the easy fix is a fox body mustang oil pan. It is a little messy as there is a front sump that when you do an oil change it will drop on the steering linkage. And you have to drop 2 drain plugs to really drain the oil. Never run the timing chain dipstick with with a fox body oil pan. It will read the front sump and say you have oil while the rear sump that has the pickup in it goes dry. I once knew a guy that lost an engine because of that.
You can also use Explorer pan as well.
Remember the pickup is matched to the pan. Bronco, mustang, Explorer are all close to each other, but not the same.

Running an early block without a dipstick port? I would be looking for a used Early Bronco pan. If you find a used one make sure it comes with the dipstick and tube.

 

[thegreatjustino]

Never run the timing chain dipstick with with a fox body oil pan. It will read the front sump and say you have oil while the rear sump that has the pickup in it goes dry.

I've always wondered about this. How does the oil in the front sump get circulated through the engine if the pickup is in the rear sump?

 

[Broncobowsher]

I've always wondered about this. How does the oil in the front sump get circulated through the engine if the pickup is in the rear sump?

Oil drains down the front of the engine and overflows the front sump into the rear sump. It all gets circulated.

 

[bigmuddy]

I ran into something similar just lately, I installed a 351w with the thru block dipstick hole on the drivers side. I figured I would use a LOKAR flexible dipstick and so went with an oil pan without an input for a dipstick.

Come to find out LOKAR doesn't make a dipstick for the 351w thru block as the dipstick drops down on the crank and will contact it.

Ended up ordering a whole new pan and pickup from Wildhorses and plugging the dipstick hole in the block. The kit comes with a nice metal dipstick, but I bet I end up ordering a flexy LOKAR anyway.... Sometimes its like herding cats!

 

[ntsqd]

I've never done it, but years ago it occurred to me that a speedo cable could make a great dip-stick, particularly if the tube needs to have bends in more than one plane. That, along with a little creativity could turn some -4 teflon hose into a dip-stick assembly.