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Tech / General EngineIs your car making a strange sound or won't start? Thinking of adding power with a new combination? Need other technical information or engine specific advice? Don't see another board for your problem? Post it here!
I’ll cut to the chase. I need to know what thread sizes there are on LS oil pans. I ordered an F-body oil pan from BRP Hotrods, but the recommended filter for a 4th Gen F-body does not fit. The opening is too small and it won’t screw on. Maybe they sent an F-body oil pan with a truck sized oil filter adapter? I asked them and they said GM uses either PF46 or PF48 oil filter. Those are AC Delco. Does anyone know what threads or sizes those are?
Here’s a few pics of what I have. Pay no mind that the oil filter can’t fit yet. I’m working on that.
Or does anyone know of a K&N or Mobil 1 size that will fit there? I’m guessing that it has to be a truck size thread with an F-body filter height.
At some point GM changed oil pan to the LS3 style filter and that's why you're old LS1 F-body filters don't fit. Cross reference a 2010 Camaro when you look for filters.
It's not a "truck" or whatever problem; it's a YEAR MODEL problem. Sometime around 07 or so, the factory changed the threads. No idea why. They were SAE before, metric afterwards. They're about the same size; no material difference in "better" or whatever; just, incompatible.
Virtually all "new" oil pans, from GM or anybody else, come with the adapter for the newer size.
FWIW, if it bothers you, you can go to the buzzard nest and unscrew one out of an earlier vehicle and swap out the one in your oil pan. Takes something like a ½" Allen. Maybe 13mm. Whatever it is, both threaded versions use the same Allen, so find out what it is on your pan's adapter, and go visit the buzzard, and find a blown-up early 2000s truck to gank one off of. Otherwise just use the later filter. Which is what I'd do, anyway; "later" carries the implication that it will be more readily available farther into the future, which is always a good thing.
The way things went down is a long complicated story...
The different divisions at GM fell into a Hierarchy (prior to 2008/ 2009).
The Top Two (in regard to Sales Divisions) were Corvette (separate from Chevrolet) and Cadillac.
Some of GM's "more important" Vehicles were using the PF46 Engine Oil-Filter.
GM was about to change Engine Oil-Filter Production...
Essentially to an inferior E-Core Product.
Corvette and Cadillac had a fit over this change...
This brought the change over to the PF48 Filters, and trickled down to other Vehicles afterwards.
When the PF46 E-Core/ Champion-Laboratories change over had happened...
And all of the Old-Stock of "Good" PF46 Filters had dried-up...
I actually had to stock Tons of the Threaded Filter Mounts, to change older Oil-Pans/ Vehicles over to the PF48 Filter Design.
I tried a 2010 Camaro filter and that didn’t fit either. I finally got tired of the wild goose chase and took off the oil filter adapter and took it in to AutoZone. I tried it on multiple filters and this one was the only one it actually fit into.
Not sure how to cross reference what vehicles this fits on, because there is no specification as to what the threads are.
The problem with this is, the filter hangs down too low. Just below the pan actually. And it would interfere with my headers also, which I took off for now. But it’s obnoxious. I ordered an F-body oil pan. Production of those ended in 2002. Why would it have a later year or size adapter on it? My resolution, I guess, will be to just order an adapter for a 2000 Camaro and see if that actually fits the correct oil filters.
