why the high volume oil pump,not available these days,and if the engine is put together correctly is not needed. I can set vaves with engine running at idea with 20 psi oil pressure with no spillage,and do not need to adjust  valves as topend get  full lube.
FES are relevant as they use cast rockers on hardened shaft. but its a free world and we can do what we think is best for our use.

Y needs more oil, not bigger oil pump. At 7000rpm oil pan is empty.


Hyvinkää, FI

A good engine with a high volume oil pump running at 7,000 rpm can easily suck all the oil out of a stock oil pan.  I can tell you from experience you don't want this to happen.  An engine that is going to see high rpm duty needs a higher capacity oil pan and a modified oiling system.  I don't know anyone who runs 7,000 rpm on the street these days.  At least I don't. 

i am a big fan of Y blocks,but if was going to run a engine  in the 7000 rpm range it would not be a Y block..rebuilt a 406 in a 1963 galaxy and found the lube system and cross bolted mains ,2 relief valves and with all this changes barly able to hang to gether for a 4hr race,

Y's have no problem sustaining high rpm when built for that.  It's been proven at the dragstrip, bonneville and I'm sure, even road racing.


Lawrenceville, GA

I helped a friend assemble a hot 390 for a friend once that we put into a Bullet Mustang Clone.  It had forged pistons, Cobra Jet heads with lots of compression, headers and a Crane solid lifter cam. He wanted to keep the stock oil pan for originality.  The engine had a high volume oil pump and stock pickup.  I opened up the oil passages in the block and advised him to take it easy and never run the engine on a dyno.  He had a problem with the carburetor so he took the car to a "tuner".  They put the car on a dyno and ran the piss out of it. During a number of sustained high rpm pulls, they ran the oil pan dry and spun a bearing.  Race engines have race car lubrication.  Engines out of a family station wagon don't.   You live and learn.

We have eight litres oil in FED and oil pan might be a little smaller than original. Crank is swimming in oil when idling.

I builded my own street engine and measured stock oil pan and got 7 litres without wetting the crank so I drive with about 6 litres.


Hyvinkää, FI

the 406 i spoke about has standard fe oil pump  but high pressure relief valve, oilpresur is controlled with a relief valve behind the fly wheel,also no lifter oil feed,as it was a solid lifter design,like i sead earlier it could do a dyne pull  no loss of oil in pan. all 390s had full oil galeries to lifters,by useing solid lifters  very high loss of volume asthe solid lifters have a large cutaway midle of lift,even if 1 used the 332 solid lifters in 390 big volum loss.

a few seconds at a dragstrip does not say the engine can run long at 7000 rpm,tho i am sure with deep pockets one could get to 7000 rpm and have decent life at many events, but cost to build would be out of touch for most of use who just want a good running Y WITH DECENT POWER TO SHAKUP THE GM DUDES

If you’ll look at the owners’ manuals for the Y equipped cars and pickups, they will say five quarts plus one extra for the filter.  Too many of the dipsticks confuses this as they will show being full at five quarts with the filter change.  The HD engines in the trucks require seven quarts with a filter change.
 
The oil pickup to pan distance has much to do with the point in which an engine starves for oil.  I target for no more than ¼”-3/8” pan clearance.  Then the bearing clearances are another factor to compensate for as additional clearances simply increases oil flow throughout the engine.  For the pickups and truck engines with the rear sump oil pans, a baffle is needed to prevent oil slosh to the front when braking.  Not all those pans come from the factory with an installed baffle.
 
I recently had a Y on the dyno with a truck oil pan and the oil pressure was dropping when the engine was held at a steady state 3500 rpms.  It would take about three minutes of higher rpm sustained running for this to happen.  This engine had five quarts of oil in it and adding another quart alleviated that problem but does give you an idea of how critical the oil level is.  I recommended to the customer for that particular engine that they run at bare minimum seven quarts of oil with a filter change.
 
I drag stripped a 427 High Riser that was experiencing an oil pressure drop at the end of the quarter mile with seven quarts of oil in a deep sump pan.  Adding two more quarts of oil fixed that problem and there was no change in ET’s meaning there was no additional oil was splashing up into the crankshaft as a result of the additional oil.  I tried running 9 quarts of oil in my Y-Block powered roadster but never could get the oil pickup position happy where I had oil pressure both on acceleration and stopping.  Depending upon the oil pickup location, it was experiencing an oil pressure drop either during acceleration or braking.  I went to a dry sump oiling system and now only run five quarts with zero oil pressure issues.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)