I just left my engine builder after surveying the damage from BOTH of my lifter valley trays becoming dislodged and ending up sitting on top of my lifters. Apparently, Key West was rougher on my equipment than I thought.

2 questions: What is this thing's purpose? And is it necessary?

OK, third question... if it's necessary, have any of you discovered with a solid way of keeping it in place? They normally just snap in place.

Thanks in advance,
Brian

I think the whole purpose is to keep hot oil off the bottom of intake manifold,there are rugged ones out there for smallblocks,not sure if there are aftermarket ones for big blocks,Smitty

I see Moroso and Milodon sell some BBC devices that have spring fingers that keep the tray sprung under the intake.

Unfortunately, they all say "not for roller cams".

Still looking.

Brian

the purpose is to keep hot oil off the bottom of intake manifold, and if you dont run it you will be sucking oil from your pcv in the hp 500 intake not good

Yep, looks like the ones that are in there now (minus all the dents).... which brings up my third question again. Has anyone fabbed anything that locks these in place so I won't be going thru this exercise again?

Thanks Sutphen30.

Brian

As noted above, the black GM tray snaps firmly in place. Used with the GM intake gaskets that are cut out to accept the locking tangs, it's trapped between the intake and head. It's beyond me how TWO would become dislodged, but boating doesn't seem to follow any of the rules. That GM tray has been around since the L-88 in the late sixties.

Have the motors been apart before? I don't see how it is possible for them to come loose. Mine snapped in hard. My bet is they were not installed correctly, expecially with both of them coming loose. I would look closer at your engine builder.

2 fixes:
Ceramic coat the bottom of the intakes to insulate intake.

Or
dill 2 x holes in the valley cover when installed. Besure they don't line up with the oil galley in the block. Then mark the block under the hole. Drill and tap the block. Measure the distance the valley cover off of the block. Use either all thread or something like it to fasten the valley cover down when installed.

Chris

See post #10. No way. Tabs must have been bent.

Thanks everyone. I've got a couple new ones on the way from Scroggin-Dickey.

We're going to weld a couple of tabs to the front and back of the block in the lifter valley and bolt 'em down. The damage could have been worse, I only need to clean up the crank, and then new main and journal bearings, plus clean up the skirts on the pistons. One lifter is trash - broken tie bar, as well as one cam, but we were planning on replacing those anyway.

The motors were refreshed last winter. I'll be having a conversation with my builder about why we need to go thru the bottom end. I'm with you guys, this should not have happened.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Brian