How important is it to have the windage tray in? my crank keeps hitting it.

 

they add hp by containing the oil away from cylinder walls and crank. you could get a aftermarket oil pan with the tray built in. fitting is an issue with them though. can you make mods to it so it wont hit it? bend or cut. maybe whammer will have some ideas.

 

well I got the car back today but dont have it in there right now bc it kept hitting the crank. Would it be dangerous to drive with out it for a little while?

 

You can clearance the windage tray as needed to clear the crank. Just don't hack at it, make some careful measurements and trim it a little at a time until it fits correctly.

You should just fix it now before you put the engine completely back together and installed in the car.

 

lol its already back in the car and running.... my mechanic took it out bc it was hitting the crank. He did not have time to fix it bc Im moving. im just wondering if anything is going to mess up with it if I drive it around.

 

It won't hurt anything with it not being in there. You may possibly have some foaming issues if you overfill your oil pan. Years ago engines didn't come with them and they were an aftermarket "performance" mod.

 

well good. For some reason my low oil light keeps coming on and I have plenty of oil. what do you think this could be from?

When my mechanic put my motor back in her bypassed the oil cooler that goes in my radiator so i did not have to buy a new radiator. (when he initially drained my oil it was full of metal shavings and he said there might be some in there so he did not rehook it up unless I bought a new radiator.) could this be the reason for my low oil light to be coming on. Its not on all the time, and I have good oil pressure.

 

Simple, that's from not having your windage tray installed. When you accelerate, the oil is sloshing to the back of the pan, something the tray would stop. The windage tray also prevents the rear crankshaft counterweights from whipping around in the oil when it sloshes back, as well as keeping the oil from splashing back up on the rotating assembly in general, both of which robs h.p. and performance (engine and oil).
Does the mechanic know much about the principles of engines? You do realize that the windage tray was put in your engine for a reason, and not just because GM had some extra sheet metal they wanted to get rid of?
You can probably guess my recommendation about keeping the windage tray or not.

 

and...the oil cooler would be what needs replacing. the oil stays in the cooler and does not go into the radiator. the coolant from the radiator goes through the oil cooler.

 

right but he said there was no way he could flush it out and that I would have to buy a whole new radiator if I wanted to rehook up the oil cool. Well he recommended it. (bc of the metal shavings.