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When Pontiac engineers de-signed the original StratoStreak overhead valve V8

back in the early 1950s, they based itsoiling system on the best-known sys-tems that they were aware of: the de-signs used on the then-recentlyintroduced Oldsmobile Rocket 303and Cadillac’s similar 331 V-8.

But that original 287-cubic-inchStrato Streak only produced 180horsepower – less than half of what aRam Air III made, and only a third orso of a typical 500-horsepower build,today. And while that original oilingsystem design may have been en-tirely satisfactory for the underpow-ered 287, and could be reasonably

capable of protecting a stock rebuildof a musclecar-era Pontiac’s engine,it’s likely woefully inadequate for ahigh performance rebuild.

Darrin Magro, founder of NitemarePerformance, identified the weak-nesses of the stock Pontiac oiling sys-tem long ago and many of thecompany’s earliest product offerings

Is your Pontiac’s oil system capable of coping with all the extra power you’ve built into your engine … or allthe abuse that you give it? With these upgrades and tips, you’ll feel far more confident that it can.

Story and Photos by Jason Scott

Blueprinting Basics:

Oil System UpgradesNitemare Performance shows how to keep your high-performancePontiac’s engine spinning smoothly with some key upgrades to itslubrication system.

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focused on addressing those short-comings to ensure the reliability ofNitemare-built engines and minimizethe chances of them suffering oiling-related failures.

Magro recently walked us throughsome of Nitemare Performance’spatented and custom-designed oilingsystem components and their bene-fits during the build-up of a 462-inchstroker motor that will be raffled offthis summer for charity (see sidebarfor info on how you can enter to winit).

Whether your next Pontiac V-8build-up is a restoration-quality re-build or an all-out race motor,Nitemare Performance’s oiling systemupgrades can help make your enginerun better and last longer, for notmuch more money than it takes tojust run factory-style parts.

OilYou wouldn’t have much of an oilingsystem without oil. And, of course,the oil you run in your Pontiac’s en-gine most definitely impacts its relia-bility and performance. But it’simportant to understand that oil haschanged a lot, even in just the last 10-20 years. You need to consider thetype of oil you run – synthetic or con-ventional petroleum-based; its vis-cosity; and especially how much zincit contains.

For breaking-in a freshly-rebuiltengine, Magro uses a quality oil that’sspecifically formulated for break-ins,like Joe Gibbs Racing’s Driven Break-In Oil. It’s a conventional (non-syn-thetic) motor oil with a 15W50viscosity and an extra helping of fric-tion-reducing zinc mixed in to protectthe camshaft and other metal-on-

metal wear surfaces during the criti-cal first start-up.

Beyond the break-in period,Magro likes Joe Gibbs Racing’s DrivenHot Rod Motor Oil, which also fea-tures extra zinc to protect the camand other wear-prone bits in the en-gine. Because the oil contains extrazinc, there’s no real need to run a zincadditive, though doing so for extrainsurance shouldn’t cause any prob-lems, either, apart from the extra cost

of a bottle of zinc additive, like ZDDP.And don’t overlook the importanceof quality assembly lube when re-building a Pontiac V-8 (or any en-gine). It’s vitally important duringthose first few minutes of operation,to protect the camshaft lobes, bear-ings, and other components from im-mediate and potentially catastrophicwear.

Back to oil … when consideringwhich viscosity to run, you should

One of the first oiling system mods that Nitemare Performance makes isto drill a 0.050-inch hole in the front galley plugs (which Nitemare alsoreplaces with threaded-in pipe plugs, to ensure they don’t pop out underpressure). The holes allow oil to stream out under pressure to ensure suf-ficient oil flow to lube the timing chain.

Another early oil system mod is installing BOP Engineering’s one-piecerear main seal. Its singular seam can be located at the top of the bearingto minimize the chance of leakage. In addition, the seal has a dual lip de-sign that seals better.

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think about your bearing clearances;the presence or absence of any fric-tion-reducing coatings on your en-gine’s components; and the airtemperatures in which you’ll be oper-ating the vehicle, among other fac-tors. Pontiac typically recommended5W30 for colder climates/seasons (-20°F to 30°F), 10W30 for 0°F to 60°F,and 10W40 for 20°F to 100°F. But ifyour Pontiac’s clearances are on thelooser side of the spec and you ex-

pect to run your engine harder—andyou won’t be operating it in coldweather—then you might want toconsider 15W50, which is a favorite ofMagro’s for performance enginesdriven in fair weather.

Finally, today’s oil is better than theoil that originally filled your Pontiac’soil pan when it first left the factory.The formulas and additive packages– not to mention the development ofvastly superior synthetic oils – are

better for your Pontiac’s engine. Butthat doesn’t necessarily mean thatyou don’t have to change your oil justas frequently. For more on that, seethe sidebar Gimme Five.

Oil Pan Your Pontiac’s oil pan (which is some-times referred to as a “sump”) has twobasic functions: to store oil until it’sdrawn into and pumped through theengine (and then returns to the pan);

At the front of the engine, a fresh crankshaft sealshould be fitted to the timing cover and lubricatedwith assembly lube to prevent damaging it during thecritical first fire-up and break-in.

In a future installment, we’ll look at how NitemarePerformance prepares and installs the timing coverand water pump assembly. For now, though, it’s a pre-requisite for installing the oil pan, so on it goes.

Nitemare Performance’s Pro Series Oil Pump Drive-shaft is made from heat-treated, hardened steel andfeatures a custom-honed steel sleeve that is pressedand pinned onto the pump end of the shaft to ensurethat the shaft doesn’t disconnect from the pump’sinput shaft during operation. The Pro shaft is thengun-drilled to reduce weight, which helps reducestrain on the bottom of the distributor and smoothesoil pump operation.

Here, you can see the sleeve, which captures thepump’s input shaft, making it almost impossible forthe drive shaft to twist off the pump shaft. It also en-sures proper alignment of the two shafts for smootheroperation and prevents the drive shaft from wobblingand potentially contacting the crank counterweight.

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and to help cool the oil while it’s inthe pan. While there’s nothing inher-ently wrong with factory oil pans,they can be improved upon.

Nitemare Performance developedits own custom-engineered oil pansfor Pontiac V8s to address a few spe-cific shortcomings of factory pans.Two versions of Nitemare’s pans areavailable: the first design fits ’64-’72A-bodies and ’67-’69 F-bodies; andthe second fits ’70-’81 F-bodies.Aside from differences to accommo-date the different chassis, the pansare similar.

The first issue that Nitemare ad-dressed is oil pan capacity. Stock panshold about 4.5 quarts, but at highrpm a high-volume oil pump can lit-erally suck all the oil out of the panbefore enough oil drains back to pre-vent the pump from sucking air,which results in a sudden loss of oilpressure that causes oil flow to stop.Nitemare’s pans feature an oversizedsump area that increases oil capacityto 6 quarts, reducing the chance ofcavitation.

Despite the oversized sump,Magro designed Nitemare’s pans toensure ample clearance to theground, the chassis, the starter, andyour exhaust.

The extra capacity and ampleclearance both contribute to the im-proved cooling capabilities ofNitemare’s pans, compared to stock.As hot oil returns to the pan from theengine, the pan’s material absorbssome of the oil’s heat, then air rush-ing around the pan absorbs some ofthat heat and carries it away. Withmore surface area compared to astock pan, there’s both more pan ma-terial to absorb heat, and more area

for air to contact to withdraw it. Theincreased capacity helps with oiltemps, too, since more oil tends tostay in the sump longer during nor-mal driving, giving it more time for airto absorb more of the heat.

Factory oil pans use only a simplebaffle that’s minimally effective atkeeping oil in the sump to keep thepickup submerged during differentdriving maneuvers. In fact, underheavy acceleration, there’s almostnothing to prevent oil from sloshingup the back of the pan, potentiallyuncovering the pickup. Nitemare’spans feature trap door-style bafflesthat surround the pickup, ensuringthat a healthy supply of oil will bepresent even during extreme acceler-ation or cornering.

Pontiac was one of the few manu-facturers that attempted to minimizeoil sloshing onto the crankshaft dur-ing operation – a condition known as“windage” – because it slows thecrank’s rotation in the same way thatit’s more difficult to when waist-deepin water. Pontiac’s solution was to in-stall a windage tray. Unfortunately,factory windage trays (which wereavailable in two different lengthsthrough the years) lacked gooddrain-back provisions, so oil could ac-tually pool up in the tray, trapping itcloser to the crank than if there wereno tray. Nitemare improved on thefactory solution by equipping its oilpans with a heavy-duty wire screen-style windage tray that’s attached di-rectly to the pan. Wire screenwindage trays greatly improve oildrain back but still prevent large vol-umes of oil from sloshing up throughthe tray and onto the crank. In addi-tion, rather than being a separate

component, Nitemare’s tray is part ofits pan, which not only reduces costsand simplifies engine assembly, butkeeps the oil trapped down lower,farther from the spinning crankshaft.

Another nice touch is thatNitemare’s oil pans feature an O-ring-sealed drain plug, to minimize thechance of a leak.

Oil Pan GasketThe factory used a four-piece gasketset to seal the oil pan to the engineassembly: cork strips along theblock’s pan rails, plus rubber strips atthe timing cover and rear main cap,and dabs of sealant where each of thepieces meet another. The cork wouldeasily deform if the pan bolts wereover-tightened, plus it could becomebrittle as it aged, while the rubberstrips dry out and crack over time,none of which were conducive to pre-venting leaks.

Unless he’s doing a restoration-quality rebuild, Magro prefers to in-stall a BOP Engineering one-piece,silicone oil pan gasket. Equipped withanti-crush sleeves at all the bolt holes,the BOP one-piece gasket doesn’t getpinched or squished out from be-tween the pan and engine, greatlyimproving its sealing characteristics.In addition, the silicone materialdoesn’t become brittle or crack, so itretains its thick, supple shape to fillthe gaps between the pan and en-gine.

Rear Main SealRear main seals have improved dras-tically since the days of our original,asbestos-based, two-piece, “rope”-style seals and the rubber seals thateventually replaced them, and which

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Installation of the oil pump driveshaft is a simple“drop-in” affair. The C-clip toward the top end pre-vents it from passing through the block, even withoutthe distributor in place.

Nitemare’s Select Series oil pump is based on aMelling CNC-machined pump that’s upgraded withNitemare’s own Pro Series Oil Pump Plate and, in thiscase, fitted with Nitemare’s bracketed oil pickup tubeand screen assembly that bolts to the pump body intwo places to ensure it doesn’t vibrate lose from thepump.

Nitemare Performance replaces flimsy paper-based oilpump base gaskets with its own gasket made from an-nealed copper, which is malleable enough to crush andconform to the surfaces of the pump body and block,yet vastly more capable of containing oil pressureseven at high rpm without risk of a blowout.

Here, you can see the precision cut of Nitemare’s oilpump base gasket that perfectly matches the contourof the pump.

Nitemare Performance’s Pro-Series Oil Pump Plate istwice as thick as a stock pump plate, at 1/4-inch,which better resists warpage of the pump.

The pump side of Nitemare’s Pro pump plate is ma-chined to be perfectly flat for optimal sealing to thepump body, then two circular grooves are cut into itto serve as oil reservoirs to maintain sufficient oil be-tween the gears and the plate to reduce friction, heat,and metal-to-metal wear.

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are still common today.While Magro has some tricks that

he’s learned through the years tomake those old-style seals work andremain mostly leak free, wheneverpossible, he opts to use a state-of-the-art, Viton one-piece rear mainseal from BOP Engineering that elim-inates the typical, leak-prone seamsin favor of a single seam that can beoriented at the top of the rear main,where there’s little chance of oil leak-ing from it. And the Viton syntheticrubber flouroelastomer from whichit’s made resists drying out, so itdoesn’t shrink, which would open upgaps between it and the crankshaftthat could allow oil through. The ma-terial is also durable and resists wearfrom the spinning crank, and uses aspecial double-lip design to furtherhelp retain oil.

Oil Pump and Pickup AssemblyA key element of the original PontiacV-8’s design was its oil pump, whichwas based on the proven Olds/Cadil-lac V8 pump designs. The fact thatthe design still works so well nearly70 years later is all the proof oneshould need. But, again, there’s roomfor improvement to ensure amplesupply of oil in a high-performanceengine.

Nitemare Performance starts witha CNC-machined Melling pump bodythat’s fitted with billet gears that areCNC-milled to provide tighter toler-ances than standard pumps for im-proved pump efficiency. Nitemarethen replaces the pump plate with itsproprietary, laser-cut Pro-line pumpplate that’s twice the thickness of afactory plate to resist pump bodywarpage during use and precision-

machined to be perfectly flat for anoptimal seal against the pump body,to again improve pump efficiency. Onthe gear side of the pump plate, di-rectly beneath the pump gears,Nitemare machines two circular oilretention channels that ensure thegears always have a cushion of oil toglide upon, instead of contacting thepump plate. For most applications,Magro uses a high-volume, standard-pressure pump, though a high-vol-ume, high-pressure pump is availablefor circumstances for which it’s bestsuited.

To his super pump, Magro attachesa Nitemare pickup that is specificallydesigned to work with the oversizedsump of the Nitemare oil pan, plusfeatures a sturdy, steel bracket thatbolts to the pump housing in two lo-cations to eliminate the chance of thepickup tube ever working itself freefrom the pump body, and to improvedurability of the pickup assembly.

Finally, an item that’s often over-looked by rebuilders who are less fa-miliar with Pontiac V-8s is thepump-to-block mating surface. Thefactory used a typical paper-basedgasket to account for minor imper-fections. Many rebuilders either for-get or choose to eliminate the gasket,which can result in a loss of oil pres-sure and volume if the mating sur-faces of both the pump and blockaren’t perfectly flat. Or, if they use afactory-style paper gasket, it eventu-ally degrades and can even blow-outover time, due to the pressures gen-erated by the pump. Magro, instead,designed a Pro-grade gasket that’scut from annealed copper, which pro-vides superior crush between the twomating surfaces for an optimal seal,

but is also durable enough to with-stand even the highest oil pressures.

Oil Pump DriveshaftYet another area that’s overlooked bymany engine builders is the simple,steel oil pump driveshaft. The factoryshaft is nothing special: steel barstock machined on one end to fit intothe distributor shaft and on the otherend to engage with the oil pump’sdrive gear shaft.

But Magro has seen and experi-enced the weaknesses of the stockshaft system, so he designed not onebut two possible replacements!Nitemare’s HP-series oil pump drive-shaft is machined from heat-treated,high-carbon steel and features a pre-cision-honed steel sleeve that’spressed and pinned onto the shaft, toensure that the driveshaft can’t be-come detached from the shaft. Theopposite end of the shaft features aC-clip in a precisely-machinedgroove, to prevent the shaft fromdropping out of the block, if the blockis inverted with the driveshaft re-moved (as can easily occur on an en-gine stand). Such a situation wouldnormally require removal of the pan,and pump assembly to correct, butNitemare’s shafts eliminate that has-sle. The two Nitemare designs differin weight: whereas the HP-seriesshaft is solid hardened steel, the Pro-series shaft is gun-drilled its entirelength to reduce rotating mass to re-duce strain on the distributor and re-duce the power needed to drive thepump.

Oil Galley RestrictorsAnother subtle oiling system upgradethat Magro makes to all Nitemare

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You need to verify the clearance between the oilpump driveshaft and the crankshaft counterweightwith a feeler gauge. Ideally, you want around 0.040-inch to allow for a slight amount of movement duringoperation.

The lower dipstick tube is an important factory piecethat positions the end of the dipstick safely awayfrom the crankshaft counterweights, into the sump.It bolts to the main cap.

Then verify the depth of the pickup screen, as shown.The difference between the pan depth minus thescreen depth is your clearance. It’s also good to verifythat the pickup assembly had sufficient clearancefrom the rotating assembly.

Factory dipstick tubes are often damaged or brokenoff, and NOS ones are impossible to locate, soNitemare produces its own tube made from high-quality stainless steel that will better resist rust foryears.

Nitemare Performance sells its pans and oil pumpswith pickup as a matched package, and as part of that,Nitemare preadjusts the pickup height for you, sincethe pickup height is not adjustable once the pickup isinstalled. But you still should verify proper clearance,starting with measuring the depth of the sump.

Darrin Magro – Nitemare Performance’s founder –shared one of his assembly tips for a leak-free pan:apply a dab of black RTV to strategic spots, like thecorner between the block and the timing cover.

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Each oil pan bolt hole in the timing cover also receivesa dab of black RTV to prevent oil from wickingthrough the threads.

Nitemare Performance’s custom oil pans feature anumber of upgrades over a stock, Pontiac pan, notthe least of which is a full-length, screen-stylewindage tray that traps oil away from the crankshaftto minimize any drag that might slow the crank’s ro-tation.

Before setting the gasket on the pan, Magro appliesa bit more RTV to strategic spots, to both keep thegasket in place and prevent leaks. Here, he’s puttinga small amount on each of the locating notches at therear of the pan.

Another dab of black RTV is applied to the corners ofthe rear main cap at the block.

Nitemare’s pans also feature custom trap door-stylebaffling all around the pickup screen area, to ensurethe pickup is always submerged in oil, even during ag-gressive acceleration, deceleration, or cornering.

And a bit more RTV goes at the “corners” toward thefront of the pan. Experience has shown Magro thatthese are some of the more leak-prone spots on Pon-tiac oil pans, and a little RTV can prevent a big leak.

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As for the gasket itself, unless it’s a full restoration,Magro recommends using BOP Engineering’s one-piece, silicone-based rubber gasket with anti-crushcollars at each of the bolt holes and a metal innerframe. It’s simply light-years ahead of the old, four-piece cork and rubber gasket set.

Even with the anti-crush collars in the BOP Engineer-ing one-piece gasket, Magro insists on installingtorque spreaders at each oil pan bolt hole to minimizedistortion and ensure the clamping force is spreadalong as much of the pan rail surface as possible. Thebolts are from ARP.

Magro attributes this tip to Nunzi, from whom helearned a good deal about building performance Pon-tiacs: a little RTV strategically applied to the rear pangasket can prevent annoying seapage at this trouble-prone spot. He’s applying it with an old feeler guage.

With the gasket in place on the pan, Magro carefullysets the Nitemare Performance oil pan onto the block.Note the Nitemare pan’s modified sump that providesadditional oil capacity, cooling, and baffling to ensurea sufficient supply of oil around the pickup.

When the block was being prepped, Magro ran acleaning tap through each bolt hole, ensuring thatbolts go in easily at this stage. Specs call for 12 ft/lbsper bolt in a typical “inner to outer” circular pattern,but Magro has found that can be too much force andinstead snugs them, being careful not to cause distor-tion or crush the gasket.

When designing the Nitemare Performance oil pans,Magro insisted on an o-ringed drain plug to ensure aleak-free seal. He really hates messes of any kind, es-pecially oil leaks.

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You should test insertion of a dipstick, to ensure itdoesn’t hit anything on its way in. Better to find outnow, when you can easily fix it, than later, when theengine is in the vehicle and fixes are much more dif-ficult.

The Nitemare Remote Oil Filter System uses anodizedAN fittings for the hoses. Relocating the filter awayfrom exhaust heat greatly reduces oil temps, whichhelps the oil and your engine last longer.

The underside of the Nitemare Performance billet alu-minum oil filter housing shows the flat, smooth sur-face for the filter gasket to seal against, as well as themachined groove that helps maximize flow to andthrough the filter.

Moving on to the oil filter system, Magro says instal-lation of the Nitemare Performance Remote Oil FilterSystem is the single-best oiling system upgrade thatyou can apply to your Pontiac. And it’s one of the eas-iest: start by replacing the stock oil filter adapter withthis o-ringed, billet aluminum adapter plate.

The custom CNC-machined, billet aluminum oil filterhousing is a rugged piece. It features not only theclearly-marked ½-inch “In” and “Out” ports, but aconvenient third ½-inch port in which you can installan auxiliary oil temp sensor.

Magro recommends use of a two-quart ACDelco filter,to maximize filter surface area, increase oil capacity,and to further help aid cooling of the oil.

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Viscosity ExplainedTerms like “5W30” or “10W40” or “15W50” describe an oil’s viscosity – how easily it flows whenpoured or pumped. An oil with a viscosity rating of “5W30” is considered a multi-grade oil. The firstnumber denotes the oil’s flow rating at zero degrees Fahrenheit; the lower the number, the less viscousthe oil will be and the more easily it will flow at that temperature … and that’s important, becauseyou want your oil to flow quickly to the parts that it needs to protect. The “W” stands for “Winter,”which indicates that the oil met certain cold weather-related testing criteria, as defined by the Societyof Automotive Engineers (SAE). The number after the “W” refers to the oil’s flow rating at 212 degreesFahrenheit, and, again, a lower number indicates the oil will be thinner or less viscous; however, sinceoil naturally becomes thinner (less viscous) at higher temperatures, you want your oil to remain some-what viscous to ensure it provides a protective cushion between parts.

Gimme Five!Few folks realize it, but your engine’s oilhas five critical functions that it mustperform during each and every singlerevolution of the crankshaft – and somethat it performs even when the engineisn’t running. In addition to lubricatingparts, it cools, cleans, protects, andseals your engine and its components.

LubricantThis is the obvious function that every-one “gets” about oil: it keeps two partsfrom coming in direct contact with eachother, to prevent wear and minimizefriction. And all you need is an amaz-ingly thin film of oil to prevent cata-strophic failure from occurring. Forexample, consider a typical main bear-ing clearance of, say, 0.002”. Thatmeans that there’s actually only 0.001”of room for oil, all the way around thecrank journal. That’s insanely thin. Forcomparison, a typical sheet of paper is four times thicker, at 0.004”. That measly 0.001” of oil is allthat’s needed to keep your crankshaft from grinding against the bearing and destroying itself.

CoolantMost enthusiasts don’t tend to think of oil as a form of coolant, but your engine has tons of partsthat never get close to water jackets or coolant. But oil is pumped pretty much everywhere insideyour engine, and everywhere it goes – the underside and skirt of each piston, the connecting rods,the cylinder walls, the camshaft, the valves, the timing chain and gears – it absorbs heat, then carriesit away as it returns to the oil pan, where air rushing around the pan’s sump whisks away some of theheat before the oil goes for another circuit through the engine.

CleanserThis is another one that’s logical when you think about it, because you know your oil gets dirty overtime. That’s one of the reasons that you change it. Again, while the engine is flowing and oozing itsway around inside your engine, it encounters all kinds of contaminants – carbon deposits, rust, dirt,moisture, fuel, and even just oxygen – and the oil collects it and sweeps it back to the pan, and even-

Finally, there’s oil. For break-ins, Magro runs Driven Break-InMotor Oil from Joe Gibbs Racing, which features extra zinc tominimize wear during the critical break-in period. After break-in, the crankcase is drained and Magro refills it with Driven’s15W50 Hot Rod Motor Oil, which is specially formulated (again,with lots of zinc to minimize wear) for vintage V-8s.

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tually to the oil filter, where most contaminants get trapped, leaving the oil reasonably clean so thatit can absorb more undesirable particles when it gets recirculated through the engine.

ProtectantOil protects the inside of your engine by preventing the formation of rust or corrosion. How? A filmof oil prevents air and moisture from coming in contact with internal components, which greatlyminimizes the chance that rust or corrosion will occur. This, by the way, is the reason that WD-40(Water Displacement, formula 40) was invented: to prevent rust and corrosion on aerospace equip-ment.

SealantOil actually helps seal your engine in two ways:First, it seals outside contaminants – dirt, moisture, etc. – from getting inside your engine by helpingto keep typical paper, cork, or rubber gaskets moist, which prevents them from shrinking, therebyenabling them to better seal the gaps between components like the oil pan and the block, or the rearmain seal and the crankshaft, or the rocker covers and the head, and various other components. Ofcourse, improving those sealing surfaces also helps them prevent anything inside your engine – likecrankcase gases or oil – from getting out of your engine.Second, oil helps seal the cylinders by filling minor gaps between the cylinder walls and the pistonrings. This helps maximize cylinder-filling during the intake stroke, minimizes the loss of cylinderpressure during the compression stroke as well as blow-by during the power stroke, and maximizescylinder evacuation during the exhaust stroke.

Change It RegularlyWith so many critical functions, it’s vital that your oil be clean and “healthy,” in order to perform itsvarious jobs well. Failure to change your oil will allow fuel to thin it, moisture and oxygen to causefoaming that minimizes protection, dirt particles that can damage bearings and journals, valve guides,cylinder walls and rings, and just about anything else in the engine, and the older and more contam-inated and more oxidized the oil becomes, the more easily it begins to break down when exposed toheat, forming a layer of sticky, sludgy, hard-to-remove deposits throughout the engine. Don’t riskyour expensive engine. Spend the few dollars to change your oil at least every year or every few thou-sand miles. Your Pontiac will thank you by rewarding you with many more miles and a whole bunchmore smiles every time you sink your foot into it.

Performance-built engines is the in-stallation of drilled oil galley plugs atthe front of the engine, behind thetiming chain. In place of factory-style,galley plugs that are merely swagedto keep them in place, Magro tapsthe galley plug holes and fitsthreaded plugs that have been drilledthrough with a 0.050-inch bleed holethat ensures ample oil to the timingchain (and fuel pump eccentric, ifrunning one) during operation.

Remote Oil Filter SystemAccording to Magro, “the single bestupgrade you can make, is to installour Pro Series Remote Oil Filter Sys-

tem.” The system Magro referencedrelocates your Pontiac’s oil filter awayfrom exhaust heat, to help reduce op-erating oil temperatures. In addition,the two-quart-capacity ACDelco oilfilter supplied by Nitemare more thandoubles both the filter surface areafor better filtration and the oil capac-ity, which helps further reduce oiltemps.

The system can be easily retrofit-ted to any traditional Pontiac V-8,thanks to the CNC-machined, billetaluminum block adapter that seals tothe block with high-quality O-rings.Aluminum AN fittings and braided,stainless steel lines carry oil to and

from the filter base. A steel mountingplate is included, and is specificallydesigned to fit over and clear typicalaftermarket multi-spark ignitionboxes, like those from MSD, to makethe most of precious firewall real es-tate. Or, for a more stealthy configu-ration, the system can be paired withan oil cooler and mounted in a con-cealed location, such as behind yourPontiac’s grille or to the core support,inside a fender cavity. Painting the fil-ter and base semi-gloss black andusing Russel’s black, Pro Classic IIbraided hose and black-anodized ANfittings would further conceal your ul-timate oil filtration setup. PP

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Win This Engine!One hundred tickets are being sold at $100each, with all proceeds from the raffle goingto The Tomorrow Fund and Alex’s LemonadeStand Foundation charities to benefit chil-dren afflicted with cancer. Each $100 ticketgets you a 1-in-100 chance of winning thisvery engine. The engine build-up will be cov-ered here in the pages of Poncho Perfection,and the drawing for the raffle will take placeon September 23 at the Pontiac Registry’s“Pontiacs With A Purpose” event in Warwick,Rhode Island.

To purchase a ticket, make out a check ormoney order to Pontiac Registry Fund andsend it along with a self-addressed, stampedenvelope to:

Nitemare Performance11 Belmont RdNorth Haven, CT 06473

Don’t forget to include your full name, day-time phone number, and email address fornotification purposes.

For more info about the raffle, visitnitemareperformance.com; event info: pon-tiacregistry.com.

SourcesNitemare Performancewww.nitemareperformance.comOil pump, pump plate, pump pickup, pumpdriveshaft, oil pan, remote oil filtration sys-tem, engine assembly

BOP Engineeringwww.bopengineering.comOne-piece, Viton rear main seal; one-piece,silicone oil pan gasket

Driven Racing Oilwww.drivenracingoil.comRacing oil with ZDDP additive

About Nitemare PerformanceNitemare Performance, located in NorthHaven, Connecticut, specializes in therestoration and race-preparation of vintagePontiacs. In addition, Nitemare manufac-tures a full line of precision-engineered per-formance parts for Pontiac engines.