so........... me and Mason my oldest son were upgrading his 88 bird week before last.
he started talking about an oil cooler using the AC condensor .... i mentioned that he may need to allow for a different amount of oil in the pan in order to send oil into those large tubes and keep the engine lubed up.
we had an old oil pan and put 2 gallons of water in it on a level surface.
interestingly enough, the pan hold **EXACTLY** 8 qts of fluid before touching the front or rear seal oil pan depressions.
thoughts on running more than 5qts?
Don't.
First there's windage, I probably don't need to explain that. Second, have you ever seen what an engine does when it's 3 quarts overfull of oil? (http://"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLS1-V-Q4v8") I've got stories I could tell about some of the potatoes I've worked with over the years and what they've done when they've forgotten to drain the oil.
Get a oil temp gauge, as long as it isn't past 240-250*F on the hottest days a cooler isn't needed... Oil is supposed to be run at 212*F, that's the temp oil is graded at... 10W-30W oil at 180* is more like 10W-40 at 212F...
Unless you're road racing don't bother with the oil cooler. I beat on my car on the street/strip and have never had an issue with the oil getting too hot.