Almond900

Little by little I am plugging away at the 455, doing all gaskets, timing chain, fuel pump, just the usual before I drop it in, my question is, is there a advantage to using the valley pan intake gaskets? I have a new timing chain set and timing gasket set I was going to put in my 350 that I didn't use so that can go in the 455, I was just curious what intake set to use, when I did 4bbl on my small block it didn't have the pan, I put it together with just regular gaskets and had no issues, just curious because the 455 has the pan

edzolz

The pan is to prevent hot oil from splashing up on the bottom of the intake and heating it up. Not necessary, but it's your call.

Fun71

The intake is metal so the 1000ºF exhaust gases in the crossover are gonna heat the rest of the intake up a lot more than some 200ºF oil splashing on the bottom of it. More likely that the valley tray will prevent the oil from cooking on the bottom of the intake.

I agree that it likely isn't really necessary. I didn't see any cooked oil on the bottom of my intake after several years of use without a valley tray.

oddball

+1

Fun story - on my first 350 build I put in an RV cam and used side gaskets with no valley pan and had the exhaust crossover open.
After about 20,000 miles I tore it down for other reasons and found two hand fulls of cooked oil crust in the intake valley.

YMMV.

jozw30

Built my w30 motor 7 years ago and used the side gaskets and a bolt in deflector/shield over the camthat I think I got from Dick Miller? No issues, but I haven't opened it up since.....

wr1970

You are a smart guy for buying that deflector/shield.When you do open it up you will see how it kept every thing clean. I have two home made that i copied from a dick miller deflector.