Do I need a 7 quart oil pan??

You may or may not need it depending on the stroke of your crank...I have a 331 stroker and girdle and I still run the stock pan...It had to be..uh..massaged to fit. (used a sledge hammer)

I don't think so.
Some will say that a hv pan is required for an hv pump.

5qt pan would be just fine.

One of the advantages to a larger pan is it moves the oil away from the rotating assembly. If you buy a 7 quart pan and only use 5, it's like a cheap form of a windage tray.

As jason mentioned though, a H.V. oil pump has the capability to suck all 5 quarts out of the pan in the higher RPM ranges. I don't think that will happen with your motor though.

srothfuss said:

As jason mentioned though, a H.V. oil pump has the capability to suck all 5 quarts out of the pan in the higher RPM ranges. I don't think that will happen with your motor though.

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I thoguht that was proven to be inaccurate (not trying to argue, but i will have to look up a thread i started about this..)

If the pan keeps the oil away from the crank, more oil is never a bad thing. the more oil the more heat it can absorb, that is why race motors with dry sump systems that have no more than a quart or two in the pan, still run giant ten to fifteen quart tanks, more oil means cooler oil.

FarBeyondDriven said:

I thoguht that was proven to be inaccurate (not trying to argue, but i will have to look up a thread i started about this..)

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I remember that thread. I thought we went to the melling website and they recommended the regular pump over the H.V.

Found it! this was one of JR's posts about it

http://forums.stangnet.com/showpost.php?p=5778880&postcount=14

More oil means slightly cooler oil in a dry sump system; it doesn't mean cooler oil in a wet sump. It just means it takes a bit longer for it to heat up --- and longer for it to cool down. If you want cooler oil add an oil cooler, not a larger volume wet sump. And I've never seen a dry sump set up that didn't have an oil cooler as an integral part of the system.

Most racers who use "7 qt" pans don't run 7 qts - the name is a bit of a misnomer. They run 5 qts. and use the pan to get the oil further away from the crank to reduce windage losses as Rothfuss alluded to.

High volume pumps should be used on racing motors built with looser bearing clearances. If the clearances are larger, a larger volume of oil has to be moved in order to fill the clearance AND maintain appropriate pressures. If you use a HV pump with normal (smaller) clearances, all the pump does is consume additional HP to pump a bunch of oil around/through the pump's bypass. Higher pressure pump (or reset the relief valve) for high revving motors that need more pressure. High volume pump for larger bearing clearances to maintain pressure while moving more oil. Anything else --- just a regular ole pump with the relief set at 60-65 psig.