I'm in the process of builing a new 383. Actually it's practically finished and on the stand ready to be pre-oiled. I have a oil pump pickup from Canton Racing that bolts to the oil pump housing. Aside from getting it pretty tight (there were no instructions on what torque setting it should be), do you think I should take the pan back off and put some red threadlocker on the that one bolt, just to be sure?

 

sounds like wasted effort, but if it makes you feel better, another one of those things you could have done in the time it took you to log on to TGO and make a post about it :P

my pickup was laying in the bottom of my pan for years, and recently when I put it back all I did was squeeze the end of the tube slightly to take it out of round a little and actually make it so it required effort to put in/take out, i dont picture it ever falling off again

 

Like dr1, I also found my pick-up tube laying in the bottom of my pan after 10 years of driving. The only time I noticed a problem was when I would brake hard the oil pressure would drop to 0 and stay there for a few seconds. For a good nights sleep use some threadlocker.

 

Went to Canton's website just to see what they recommend. They said to tack weld the pick up tube to the pump. Sooo, even though I don't think its going anywhere, I'm going to take the pan off, take the oil pump off, and take it to my buddy's house and let him tack weld it for me. Better safe than sorry.

 

I too have had the 'pickup laying in the bottom of the pan' issue. No oil pressure when stopping is not a good thing.

A tack weld or braze spot does the trick. Remove the bottom cover to do this.

Using locktite on the 4 oil pump cover bolts is a good idea. I do that or wire them. Same with the cam gear bolts, and valley baffle bolts.

RBob.

 

I didn't have my pickup tube bolted on earlier this year and it fell off. It's bolted on now. I only had it tack welded and my tack weld broke. At the far end of the 1/4 mile while I was slowing down, my oil light came on. My oil accumulator made sure the galleries still had pressure and it saved the engine. Light comes on at 15 psi. Accumulator starts filling the galleries at 5 psi. I was watching the gauge fluctuate all the way back up the return road and thought I broke the oil pump at first until I dropped the pan and heard the pickup tube in the bottom.

When welding or brazing on the tube, take the pressure regulator spring out. It's held in by a little roll pin and flat washer.