Offshoreonly.com - Is the splash shield needed on 502 gen6????

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Quote:

Originally Posted by tpabayflyer (Post 3912685)

Yes, I got it from boats.net and it had a little rusting going on but not too bad..... It is still very serviceable and needed a little scrubbing but cleaned up with a small amount of pitting remaining...... I am using the RPM Air Gap manifold and feel that using the shield will keep the wind generated oil vortex away from the top of the engine and probably do a better job of keeping the cam/ lifter valley covered in oil......... GM engineers are likely pretty sharp fellas and there is a reason they use the shield so I dont think I will be second guessing them! TBF

TBF, I don't actually recall GM using a splash shield on any of their factory engines. I think the "dogbone" retainer arrangement just happens to double as an impromptu splash shield - it's main function is to act like a spring to hold the lifter retainers down. That being said, it would be interesting to get a back-to-back comparison of temp readings on the area under an air gap manifold to see how much the shield helps.

The spider that bolts to the block and retaines he dog bone lifter guides is certainly unique to all gen 6 hyd roller motors.... The splash shield sits a few inches higher and looks like it does a pretty good job of keeping hot oil off the bottom of the intake...... I am not sure how many engines were equipped with the splash shields but my Gen 6 7.4MPI had one and I have no idea about the Gen 5 or 4 engines...... But again, it was put there for a reason and GM spends millions on R&D and I am not going to question that...... TBF