Technical Crank to pan clearance

Whats the tightest crank to oil pan clearance on the ford flathead v8? I need to make a bit more room for the front axle. I have the square 1939 truck oil pan and I see pictures of car oil pans that apear to follow the crank a bit closer. So whats too close or whats a good gap?
Thanks

 

If things are that tight move the flathead back or the axle forward or maybe it’s time for a new axle…

 

My options now are modify the oil pan or raise the motor and modify the transmission tunnel up as well. I have IFS so the center axle crossmember piece is solid mounted. Its the square pan thats the issue. I am sure if I had a rounded pan it will fit. So I want to modify the truck pan to be close the the crank like the car pan

 

So you can't cut the IFS crossmember? Why not? Steering in the way?

 

Nothing left that I can modify except the pan or the trans tunnel

 

I used to build a stroker motor than required pan clearancing. I used to hammer and dolly the inside 'till they fit without a gasket. It was a FelPro or Victor rubber deal, ~.125-.187 thick ? Never had a comeback. Just postulating, you could probably take the gasket off and dent the pan 'till it just hit the crank. Put the gasket back in and that's the clearance you'd end up with for you axle. Mike

 

thanks

 

I’d go with .100 anyways, more if you can get away with it.

 

50 thousandths will clear metal to metal. If there is a question about gasket crush or the pan distorting under tightening, add some more.

 

I used .120 clearance piston to valve clearance so the same should be okay for pan to rotating assembly...

 

I made a crank oil scraper once; when I cranked the engine over it self clearanced. Cut the pan to clear and and see how the rotating assy clears the cross memeber. Piece the pan back together splitting the diff.

 

put some clay between the pan and crank and see what ya got now

 

What I ended up doing was put the engine in with out the pan and measure how much clearance there was between the crank and the cross member. Then bent the pan (which took some cutting and welding) so it clears the crossmember by 3/8” and the crank by 1/4”