Benefits of a windage tray?

if its the same as an oil scraper its to keep the crank light so it can spin easier and use less hp.

It is the same sort of thing as a "oil scraper"

While I havn't heard the "lighter crank" argument before, I guess it kinda makes sence. Although the weight of the oil compared to the weight of the crank would be pretty damn small.

The windage tray is ment to do 2 things.
1) Prevent the oil from getting too much "air bubbles" in it. In high RPM or race conditions the crank can fling the oil so hard and fast that it starts to act almost like whipping cream.
2)Improve horsepower. It will give 1 or 2 HP at higher RPM's due to slightly less frcition.

From what I understand a windage tray is only needed on engines that see high RPM (or moderate RPM for a long period of time) and does very little as far as actually increasing horsepower.

i put a cheap aluminum open 1" carb spacer and a windage tray i bought of ebay and hit my best time - from a 12.75- to a 12.59.

when i went to swap to the 347 i noticed that the windage tray was cracked and didn't continue the assembly till i had one.

yes i think it is worth the effort!

BTW my 8 quart oil pan is from ebay...its a "FAKE" milodon