1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

[Dan M.]

Not counting the filter how much oil should be in a stock L-71 oil pan.

[William L.]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

Dan
On a 67/L71 it's 5 without the filter, I think its the same for a 69>
Bill

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

Bill and Dan----

All 1965-74 Corvette big block oil pans have the same capacity---5 quarts + 1 with filter change.

[tom444634]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

Joe,

I have a 71 (Sept 70 production) LS5, SN 1632. The pic is of the oil pan, that as far as I can tell by talking to the previous owners, is original to the car. I need to put in 7 quarts to get to the full mark on the dip stick when changing the filter. The dip stick is the correct one and seated fully in the pan.

I had a 71 SS454 Chevelle that had a different pan without the baffles and trap door. That car did take the 5 + 1 quarts. I was very suprised when I pulled the pan last summer and saw the internal baffles.

Is this the correct pan for the car?

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

tom----

The oil pan pictured appears to be a correct Corvette big block oil pan.

As far as the capacity is concerned. I can tell you that 5 quarts without filter change and 6 quarts with filter change is the capacity of all 1965-74 Corvette oil pans. This is the capacity specified by GM. It's also the observed capacity.

Why yours is different I cannot explain with certainty. All I can figure, assuming that the pan is correct which it appears to be, is that the dipstick OR the dipstick tube are not correct.

[tom444634]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

Joe,

Thanks for the reply. Once the weather breaks here, I'll dig into this a little more.

Were all LS5's 4 bolt main blocks?

For some reason I don't remember my SS 454 being a 4 bolt main block. But then again that was 20 years ago and I didn't photograph the restoration as well as I should have.

Tom

[Terry M.]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

1970-1972 Corvette LS5s normally have two bolt main bearings. I would expect the Chevelle version to be the same, but my first-hand experience with them was too long ago for me to remember. Honestly, we just didn't care about those sort of details back then. Spent too much time replacing upper inner control arm bushings in those A-bodies.

[tom444634]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

Terry,

You say that "1970-1972 Corvette LS5s normally have two bolt main bearings". I'm at a loss then to explain why my block has 4 bolt mains. It is the block the car came with and when I rebuilt it this past summer, it was the first time the heads were off and the bottom end was opened up. The bearings even had a 7-70 date code on them.

Thanks for the input,

Tom

[Terry M.]

Re: 1969 L-71 oil pan capacity

No need to be at a loss. The reason I used the term "normally" is that they could when building the engine upgrade the cylinder case to the four-bolt version if no two bolt cases were available. If your cylinder case is original to the car, this is apparently what happened. This was not a normal event, however, since there was additional cost in the four-bolt case, and Tonawanda would not have spent this extra money unless that order for X number of LS5 engines could not be delayed until two-bolt cases became available.

[Mark #28455]

Oddball events did happen - but rarely

Ever see a 2 bolt 454 block with 4 bolt caps (yet the block was NOT drilled for the outer bolts)? I had one - it also was NOT drilled for the oil cooler (the bigger holes above the oil filter). It was also a virgin engine that I disassembled for the first time - GO FIGURE!

Mark

[Terry M.]

Re: Oddball events did happen - but rarely

Do you suppose that someplace there is/was the other half of your combo -- that is a four-bolt case with two-bolt caps? How well did they count the pieces?