Late Model Engines (LME) has long been known for building reliable high-horsepower LS engines for street cars and race cars alike. Not only do they offer engine building services, but they have a variety of LME branded engine components that customers can purchase à la carte. When it comes to engine parts, billet is typically the material of choice for high-performance applications because of its weight savings and strength when compared to other materials. LME has been producing a handful of billet aluminum parts for years and is continually working to develop even more components they can manufacture in house out of the material hot rodders and racers drool over.
At the 2023 PRI Show we got a look at one of LME’s latest billet goodies, their all-new LT dry sump oil pan. Sitting on the display table gleaming under the lights like a diamond, this oil pan is as much a piece of automotive art as it is a high-performance engine part. We spoke with Bryan Neelen from LME about the development of their new dry sump pan for the Gen V LT platform. “Our biggest market currently is the LT customer,” Neelen said. “We still do a ton of LS work but the request for LT work has surpassed the LS for us. So we want to create parts for the LT platform.”
The LME billet dry sump oil pan is machined from a single block of 6061 aluminum for strength and rigidity. “The oil pan features a unique crankshaft scraper incorporated into its design that collects the oil into a galley area to be easily scavenged by three -12 AN ports,” Neelen explained. As much as we are excited for the development of LT parts – worry not LS fans – LME also offers its billet dry sump oil pan for LS engines too.
In addition to this new dry sump oil pan, LME has expanded its line of billet front covers to include LS front covers. These billet covers are machined from solid 6061 aluminum in-house at the LME facility. The covers allow for a double-roller timing set and retain the cam sensor in the factory location so there should be no issues with the sensor reading factory cam gears. To answer the many requests of their customers, LME also offers the billet LS front cover with a cam-driven fuel pump option.
The new LS cover design allows you to run a direct drive cam-driven fuel pump to reduce the likelihood of a failure due to throwing belts or breaking mandrels. This setup will run the fuel pump at half the RPM of the engine so the pump stays happy and performing as it should. Because a cam-driven fuel pump interferes with a factory-style water pump, LME has incorporated -12 ORB water ports into its billet front cover so you can run AN water lines however you see fit to a remote mount water pump. The cover can also be ordered without any water ports if you choose.
Because the engine’s balancer can often interfere with the location of a cam-drive fuel pump, LME offers spacers in various lengths to move the fuel pump out to clear the balancer. Additionally, this front cover allows for a double-roller timing set just like the other billet front covers in the LME lineup. Included with the front cover is a three-bolt hub to bolt to the camshaft.
LME is quickly becoming a house of billet and that is a great thing for those wanting high-quality American-made engine components that are designed and manufactured for the highest levels of performance. In addition to these latest billet components, LME also produces its own line of billet LS, LT1, and LT2 engine blocks. With Late Model Engines one could have an almost entirely billet engine built to withstand 2,500-plus horsepower and look like jewelry under the hood. For more information on the billet dry sump oil pans, front covers, and more visit Late Model Engines.
