The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Engine splash pans

When I installed my rebuilt 216 back in 1973, I opted to leave out the engine splash pans because they were still full of oily debris and appeared to serve no other purpose than to collect crap. Over 50 years of attending car and truck shows, I don't believe that I have seen any original or restored artdeco era trucks with them installed, leaving that to be a candidate for the most overlooked stock portion of a restoration, soon to be followed by the lack of paint between the upper and lower grilles. How many of you have these pans installed and please show some pictures for those who are not familiar.

I had them on my 39 for a number of years. I took them off a few years back. They made it a pain in the ahem to work on the starter and other engine components. They collected dust, debris, and other crude. Not easy to clean with my short arms. I still have them sitting on a shelf.

Rick

46 Texaco Fought around them in the early years,recall cutting them off with the torch,recall getting into the cut off brackets but haven't actually seen any in years. In my area where you would have mudholes the width of a truck you sometimes had to hit em pretty hard to get thru,now then they were essential to keep from drowning out. Also to keep cold mud water off of your manifold. Have seen oil field trucks with heavy oil,mud slop all over those protectors !! That was 50/60 years ago.

I have a set on my shelf also. I decided they were not going to fit with the motor change. Went from a Chevy 216 to a GMC 270.
They were caked very heavily when I took them off.

Wayne87vert Think I have some of those in my pile antiques worth 100$ a side,we hated em in the way all the time,but necessary on the mud roads in the winter cars too !

Mine are still on and I wash them a couple times a year at the car wash, they tend to keep the engine clean. I don't see that they are an issue.

I have an early '49 which came with those pans. They were in horrible shape so I removed them. I was surprised that model came with them.

I have worked on a lot of late 1947-49 trucks and have never seen them on those year trucks.
Anyone else have them on these years?

Next time I'm at the farm where a bunch of my parts are located, I'll take some pics. This is a '49 GMC 1/2 ton frame.
If I can't find the pans, I should be able to take some pics of the rivet holes in the frame where they once resided.

My '51 has the splash pans on it.

Picture please!

Engine splash pans were a common thread between most manufacturers in the 20s thru the late 40s with some holdouts into the early 50s. To find a vehicle with them still in place is a real treat. I have them on a off brand and oddly enough they don’t have rust.

My '39 Off brand has a splash pan protecting the right side of the engine fuel pump, etc. It's in the way to do any work from below.

The 41-46 GMC's I have are all bolted to the frame.

Mine are riveted to the frame. There are three straps on the underside that support them. There was a little crud on them that I had to scrape off before I got the frame blasted, but were in pretty decent shape. Just needed a little straightening. Here's a couple of pics.