SBF Oil Pan Spreader Bars?

I finally pulled the oil pan off my 1996 donor 5.0 engine last night, and it had a set of these oil pan spreader bars on it. They're quite heavy at 3/16" thick. I don't think I even knew that these things existed, but when you Google them they are widely available.




I assume they're something that a mechanic added at some point? This engine did have a newer oil pan on it (They rust out around here and leak after a while).

I think those are from Ford.  My '90 460 pan had similar ones.

Rembrant wrote

I finally pulled the oil pan off my 1996 donor 5.0 engine last night, and it had a set of these oil pan spreader bars on it. They're quite heavy at 3/16" thick. I don't think I even knew that these things existed, but when you Google them they are widely available.




I assume they're something that a mechanic added at some point? This engine did have a newer oil pan on it (They rust out around here and leak after a while).

I bought a set from Ford Performance for my 302 build.  They are strongly recommended for use with one piece gaskets.

If you run it make sure the bolts are long enough, they are longer than standard pan bolts to account for the thickness of the bars.

I bought them as I am running a fel pro one piece blue rubber gasket set on my oil pan as well as the blue rubber gasket for my valve covers.  So I picked up my bars from Ford Performance who still sells them who also still sells the spider kit that comes with two bolts, the lifter retainer spider, and the lifter retainer dog bones for the OE roller setup.  Funny thing I found out is when Ford discontinued the parts they started having Ford Performance offer the parts such as their Timing cover, the Timing cover from Ford Performance is the exact one Ford used to sell before they listed them obsolete complete with correct part number.

Here you can see mine installed with ARP oil pan fasteners for use with the oil pain rail stiffeners.