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Oil Cooler Adaptor vs gen-I SBC


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I am trying to simplify the oil cooler adapter on my 1964 SBC 327 block. The engine had a bypass eliminator mated to a "spin-on" filter adapter which was mated to a spin-on oil cooler adapter. This turned out badly for me a few weeks ago with the adapter blowing off the bottom of the block and causing a small, but messy fire and oiling the track.

 

I ordered a Canton Racing Products #22-580, "Bolt-On" oil cooler adapter to fit SBC 1955-1987 blocks. This is not working out like it should. The adapter bolts are 5/16" and the block is tapped for 1/4" bolts. Easy enough to drill and tap larger, but there are bigger issues, the large outer O-ring does not mate up to the http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f127/bjhines/V8%20240Z%20project/Oil%20system/canisterfilter.jpg[/img]"]early canister style filter mounting area. It appears that the original canister O-ring should be used instead of the Canton supplied O-ring, but I was just going to run this by you guys first. I purchased 2 different brand canister filters to get the large O-rings, but they are much different thicknesses. One is way too thick to allow the adapter to fit against the inner-most mounting surface for the return. The other one is much thinner but it still holds the inner-most mount surface too far away. I could/would cut a groove in the adapter to suit the canister-O-ring's added thickness but they are all a little different.

 

Here is a pic of the old-style canister mounting area.

canisterfilter.jpg

The first step is where the canister rim seals with a square profile O-ring. The adapter's O-ring groove is too small and lands inside that first step.

 

Here is a line diagram of the later style filter mounting area

SBCOilfilterboss.jpg

 

and a drawing of the entire oil system on the later style blocks

SBOilSystem2.jpg

 

SBCOiling.gif

 

..

Edited by bjhines
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I love Summit racing's Customer service. They are shipping me a Moroso 23770 Oil filter bypass plate and covering all the extra shipping costs. Apparently this Moroso piece needs some machining to work on the early blocks but it will do the job just fine. The Canton part cannot be machined to work with the early blocks and must be returned.

 

This oil filter mishap has been an incredible pain in the ass and nearly cost me the entire vehicle and years of work. I feel lucky I didn't loose everything and I will never trust any weirdo assemblage of adapters again.

Edited by bjhines
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The car looks pretty sooty from the photos--good thing that's about all it was. It would have been a shame to have hurt a nice paint job and engine bay like that! Be thankful! Thanks for the info about the oil cooler adapter. I was planning on running just remote adapter, so I will carefully select my components. I want no mishaps like this--too dangerous for my blood!

 

 

Davy

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Thanks guys,

 

If you are using a 1968 or later block, then you have a lot of available options. The folks at Canton and Moroso said they have maybe one request every few years for an early block adapter. I was shocked to find out just how few people are using the early blocks. There are some other options available from Hamburger, but you need to be careful because Hamburger re-brands "Transdapt" cast adapters as well as billet custom adapters. The billet adapters have the O-ring groove at the outermost area to mate to the early blocks, but the center section will need further machining.

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