wildjyoung

iTrader: (6)

I know recommended oil pump pick-up to pan clearance is 3/8" to 1/2" I took my pump and pick-up to the machine shop to get brazed and when it came back it is about 1" clearance to the pan. This is a street car that will have very little strip time. I have 2 questions.

1) Will this cause any detrimental effects to my oiling system? Pump cavitation, loss of oil pressure?

2) If so, what are my options besides buying a new pump and pick-up?

Thanks for the help!

Josh

radical82

Under acceleration or hard braking it will be very easy to starve the engine for oil... Brazing should be easy enough to cut through with a cutoff wheel and some care, then reattach so you have the correct clearance.... IMO with a stock capacity pan, don't go beyond 3/8" clearance. Some clay on top of the pickup is a good accurate check.

grumpyvette

you can re-heat a brazed pick-up very easily with an oxy-acetylene torch and then tap the pick up to the new location, (rotate it slightly in the pump body) and re-braze it, that's one reason brazing is generally preferred to tig welding the pick-ups
thats an easily fixed deal, if your not comfortable doing that the use of a new pump and starting over is minimal compared to the potential of ruining an engine with the pick-up mounted a full 1" off the oil pan floor when it should be 3/8"-1/2"

btw thats also a good lesson in WHY you need an oxy-acetylene torch in your list of tools in your garage.

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/...hp?f=54&t=1800

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/...0&p=4597#p4597

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=65818


http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/...hp?f=54&t=2187

Now the question always comes up, why do I need a high volume oil pump and 6-8 quart oil pan, the main reason youll use a high volume pump to begin with is to provide more volume of oil,at any given rpm,oil that cools the rings, rockers, bearings,that are being stressed to levels the original engineers never expected. etc,plus at high rpm levels there 2-2.5 quarts of oil in the valve covers, lifter gallery and trapped rotating with the crank assembly if you don,t have a windage screen and baffled oil pan, now hit the brakes or accelerate hard, oil stacks into one end of the oil pan and theres darn little oil left above the oil pump pickup,in a 4-5 quart oil pan,but the mods are really , only required if you have increased the oil flow rates,by increasing the bearing clearances,and re directing oil and as a result you also need to control the flow better and have more oil in the sump, ordinarily the engines needs are supplied, and the adequate volume can easily be supplied by the standard oil pump if you have not increased the clearances and done a few other mods to increase the oil flow rates to parts in the engine to increase the flow rates to cool and lubricate the components.
so the obvious question is why do you bother doing the mods in the first place, if the standard pump will work, the answer is the standard pump works fine up to the limits it was designed for, and thats a engine of about 265-327-350 cubic inches and spinning under about 6500rpm that produces under about 370hp,
once you start to exceed that theres a few modifications that can, if done correctly increase the cooling and engine durability, but those mods require a greater volume of oil flowing over parts to cool and lubricate them than the stock pump cam provide, if you read the linked info youll see that there are modifications to a, stock sbc to convert it into a race engine that are neither needed or useful on a street engine, but due to the far higher stress levels in a race engine those mods become more important to durability

http://www.welders-direct.com/mercha...ategory_Code=V