The Scat V4 continued getting our undivided attention this week.  Starting from last Sunday, we finished up the last pieces of the engine plate accessories and quickly switched focus to the oil pan.  We were faced with a choice of modifying the existing hacked up oil pan or making a custom oil pan completely from scratch.  Modifying the oil pan is necessary because, due to the Rock Bug’s very tight clearances, we need to run the exhaust underneath it.  Since we are running a dry sump, we do have the option of running a lower profile oil pan which would greatly help with the exhaust layout. Yes we know the clock is ticking, but this one seemed too fun to pass up.  Therefore, first thing on Monday we started designing the Rock Bug’s Scat V4 custom billet oil pan.

For you Chevy fans out there, the shape of this oil pan may look somewhat familiar.  A Scat V4 is built from the same platform of a Chevy 350.  Without getting into too much detail here, the center 4 cylinders from the Chevy 350 design are removed, making the platform for this custom Scat V4 engine.  So the oil pan has a similar shape from the 350 but the overall length is quite a bit shorter.

The Scat’s oil pan will be machined from a solid block of 6061T6 aluminum. This raw block of 6061T6 weighed in at  50.51 lbs.  With a finished machined weight targeted under 5 lbs, there is no question here we will be making a lot of chips!  Let the machining begin.

We had about 3 hours into machining and welding and are happy to say the end result was well worth it.  On the first try, the Rock Bug’s Scat V4 engine is now the proud owner of a custom billet aluminum oil pan.

This weekend, we will continue work on the exhaust, staying right on target with having the Scat V4 ready to ship early next week to the engine builder.  Until next time, thanks for checking in.