Product Review: OBX Oil Pan for D-Series
11-01-2003, 07:23 PM
#1
1.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 520
Product Review: OBX Oil Pan for D-Series
People asked me for a post-installation review, so here it is. This is NOT a shining review. I said that if the product was problematic I would be the first to admit it, so here it is. I will review this item in several catagories, it will be in the form of 1-5 stars (1 being bad, 5 good). If you want to see HIGH resolution photos of the oil pan pre-installation, goto this thread: http://www.honda-tech.com/zero...age=2
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Price as tested: $155.00 from tuningdepot.com.
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Quality of construction: * *
This is not the pretiest piece I've seen. The welding is FUNCTIONAL and they appear strong, but they aren't pretty by any stretch of the imagination. the oil pickup provided did not fit as delivered and needed modification, which I'll cover later.
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Ease of installation: *
Whoever designed / built this pan is obviously part of a vast communist conspiracy. Its made in China, and as such probobly by slave labor. NOTHING fit without modification/clearancing first... which didn't suprise me. Let me break it down into the 3 problem areas.
1.) The oil pickup. I APOLOGIZE for this but the pictures I took of the oilpickup installed turned out really bad. If I ever have the pan off the car again in the near future. First of all the holes on the flange that attached to the oilpump inlet were too small. That was easily handled by my drill press and the proper size drill bit. Then the flange that attaches to the oilpump inlet was too wide, SOOOoooo I got out the dremel and thinned its width until it fit.
2.) The oil pickup clearing the windage tray. I then tried to test fit the pan to the block, except the goddamn oil pickup tube was hitting the windage tray! SO, out came the dremel again and I put on the cutoff wheel and cleared the windage tray, below are the pictures showing what I had to cut off. If you look at the high-res pics in the above thread you'll see what was cut:
So anyway, that was pretty annoying.
3.) Pan to the block. Okay, well finally the pickup clears the boody windage tray, lets see how it mounts to the block.... survey says: BZZZT. To make this son of a bitch fit the block I had to get out, yes... our old friend the Dremel. This time with the grinding carbide again. I had to open up all the holes which used the studs. If you've ever had the oil pan off, you know what I mean.. there are studs on the corners and 1 on each of the longer sides.. the rest are just bolts. Here are some pictures of the enlarged holes:
Sorry they're a lil ugly there, i got out the sanding wheel on the dremel and cleaned them up.
After all of those changes were made, it bolted up like the stock pan and i torqued everything down to spec. Then I put the down pipe back on my DC header... which I was suprised still fit (after all this crap, I was expecting the worse) and had good clearance :crook:
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Functionality: * * * * *
Despite being a 2 hour fiasco, the thing DOES do what its supposed to. The flange was perfectly flat like OEM and after 30 miles of test driving is showing no signs of leaking. I will check it again in a couple weeks with my inspection mirror and see if thats still the case.
With oil filter change, it took about 5.7 quarts of oil to top this off to the normal "full" line on the dip stick. Usually it took 4.3Q with the OEM pan, so I'd estimate the capacity increase of about 1.5Q, which was the advertised increase over stock.
---
Overall rating: * *
The pan does its job, but it has serious design and fit issues. I would not buy it again and further more I wouldnt reccomend it to anyone unless you're on an extreme budget. Also don't but this unless you own a good drill and a dremel tool =)
These are hand made pieces, so I assume each one would have its own seperate issues ... so your milage may vary.
---
Outstanding issues and/or things to know about:
1.) It took longer for the car to warm up due to the extra oil, I expected that and wasnt suprised. When I put the 8Q oil pan on my mustang it obviously did the same thing. So allow your car some extra time in the morning to heat up the extra oil.
2.) The bungs on the pan are 1/2" NPT. I bought a fitting for my autometer oil temp sender to adapt it, but it hasnt arrived yet. thats obviously my problem, but just letting you guys know what size it is so you can have yours ready.
3.) Ground clearance. Some of you were concerned about ground clearance, so here are some height comparison pics:
Here is the pan vs. the ground. I have Eibach Pro Kit springs on my car, the pan was about level with my downpipe... so perfectly acceptable to me:
I took one for the team (again) and I got it to work, but ... if I could do it all over again I woulda shelled out the money for a Canton (do they make a D series pan?) or a Moroso.
And now ya know!
---
Price as tested: $155.00 from tuningdepot.com.
---
Quality of construction: * *
This is not the pretiest piece I've seen. The welding is FUNCTIONAL and they appear strong, but they aren't pretty by any stretch of the imagination. the oil pickup provided did not fit as delivered and needed modification, which I'll cover later.
---
Ease of installation: *
Whoever designed / built this pan is obviously part of a vast communist conspiracy. Its made in China, and as such probobly by slave labor. NOTHING fit without modification/clearancing first... which didn't suprise me. Let me break it down into the 3 problem areas.
1.) The oil pickup. I APOLOGIZE for this but the pictures I took of the oilpickup installed turned out really bad. If I ever have the pan off the car again in the near future. First of all the holes on the flange that attached to the oilpump inlet were too small. That was easily handled by my drill press and the proper size drill bit. Then the flange that attaches to the oilpump inlet was too wide, SOOOoooo I got out the dremel and thinned its width until it fit.
2.) The oil pickup clearing the windage tray. I then tried to test fit the pan to the block, except the goddamn oil pickup tube was hitting the windage tray! SO, out came the dremel again and I put on the cutoff wheel and cleared the windage tray, below are the pictures showing what I had to cut off. If you look at the high-res pics in the above thread you'll see what was cut:
So anyway, that was pretty annoying.
3.) Pan to the block. Okay, well finally the pickup clears the boody windage tray, lets see how it mounts to the block.... survey says: BZZZT. To make this son of a bitch fit the block I had to get out, yes... our old friend the Dremel. This time with the grinding carbide again. I had to open up all the holes which used the studs. If you've ever had the oil pan off, you know what I mean.. there are studs on the corners and 1 on each of the longer sides.. the rest are just bolts. Here are some pictures of the enlarged holes:
Sorry they're a lil ugly there, i got out the sanding wheel on the dremel and cleaned them up.
After all of those changes were made, it bolted up like the stock pan and i torqued everything down to spec. Then I put the down pipe back on my DC header... which I was suprised still fit (after all this crap, I was expecting the worse) and had good clearance :crook:
---
Functionality: * * * * *
Despite being a 2 hour fiasco, the thing DOES do what its supposed to. The flange was perfectly flat like OEM and after 30 miles of test driving is showing no signs of leaking. I will check it again in a couple weeks with my inspection mirror and see if thats still the case.
With oil filter change, it took about 5.7 quarts of oil to top this off to the normal "full" line on the dip stick. Usually it took 4.3Q with the OEM pan, so I'd estimate the capacity increase of about 1.5Q, which was the advertised increase over stock.
---
Overall rating: * *
The pan does its job, but it has serious design and fit issues. I would not buy it again and further more I wouldnt reccomend it to anyone unless you're on an extreme budget. Also don't but this unless you own a good drill and a dremel tool =)
These are hand made pieces, so I assume each one would have its own seperate issues ... so your milage may vary.
---
Outstanding issues and/or things to know about:
1.) It took longer for the car to warm up due to the extra oil, I expected that and wasnt suprised. When I put the 8Q oil pan on my mustang it obviously did the same thing. So allow your car some extra time in the morning to heat up the extra oil.
2.) The bungs on the pan are 1/2" NPT. I bought a fitting for my autometer oil temp sender to adapt it, but it hasnt arrived yet. thats obviously my problem, but just letting you guys know what size it is so you can have yours ready.
3.) Ground clearance. Some of you were concerned about ground clearance, so here are some height comparison pics:
Here is the pan vs. the ground. I have Eibach Pro Kit springs on my car, the pan was about level with my downpipe... so perfectly acceptable to me:
I took one for the team (again) and I got it to work, but ... if I could do it all over again I woulda shelled out the money for a Canton (do they make a D series pan?) or a Moroso.
And now ya know!
11-01-2003, 07:31 PM
#2
3.0 BAR
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 21,479
Re:Product Review: OBX Oil Pan for D-Series
---- that. I guess someone had to take it in the *** to see how bad it really was. 
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11-01-2003, 07:47 PM
#5
1.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 520
Re:Product Review: OBX Oil Pan for D-Series
Originally Posted by ghettoturbo
I like my stock pan...that one hangs too low for my liking....is there any real need for a new pan in the honda world?
Anymore than 150 bucks and I would've passed... now if I could only get someone to sell me a 14B or T-25 that isnt bad...
11-02-2003, 12:12 AM
#9
0.0 BAR
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 0
Re:Product Review: OBX Oil Pan for D-Series
Way to take one for the team. Now we can all confirm are ongoing suspicions about OBX. I like the way the review started of all unbiased sounding and you were ready to really give it a fair chance, and sure enough, you said "god dammit" in the review. hahahahahah I knew that was coming. 
Good job though.
Good job though.
11-02-2003, 12:34 AM
#10
1.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 520
Re:Product Review: OBX Oil Pan for D-Series
Originally Posted by Stealthmode
Way to take one for the team. Now we can all confirm are ongoing suspicions about OBX. I like the way the review started of all unbiased sounding and you were ready to really give it a fair chance, and sure enough, you said "god dammit" in the review. hahahahahah I knew that was coming. Good job though.
Good job though.
