I bought a Toronado pan. Looking at it, it looks like a bad design. To clear the axle, there is a hump in the pan. There is no way oil can drain back to the pump. Since I am putting in a 442, I was considering cutting out the hump and welding a curved plate in its place.

Has anyone considered or heard of such a modification?

Thanks

 

Or you can take a rosebud (torch) and flatten all or part of the hump.

 

I've welded in a piece and I've flattened them out. Only problem I had was flattening one of them out caused the pan rail to spread a little so bolting it to the block was a little tricky. I never test fit it prior to hammering it out so maybe the pan was a little spread beforehand but still, keep it in mind.
I don't know which year chassis 442 you're putting this in but make sure you have the indentations in the side for the inner tie rod ends. In my 67 442 the inner tie rods whacked the pan till I "relieved" it a bit.

 

Use a piece of 1/4" bar stock drilled and bolted across the pan in two locations and it will keep the pan from spreading when you heat and flatten the Toro pan.

 

Sound advice.

 

Great suggestions guys. Heating it and flattening it crossed my mind, but I thought it would distort. However, the bar is a good idea. After flattening it, I could also hammer and dolly it a little to relief any residual stresses.

In reality, it only nees one spot flattened in the middel to allow drain-back. This would minimize both the welding and/or flatenning processes.

I am putting it in a 69 442. I know the Toro pan is not as wide, I already checked that. But, maybe it is wider in a local area that may cause problems. Good advice. The engine is still in the car, so I can take measurements and compare to check for any steering contact problems.

 

It's funny, I had a Toro pan in my 70 SX and it cleared the steering linkage with no probs but in my 67 442 it whacked the pan. I did have a G body steering box in the 67 but didn't in the 70.