Does anyone have a slick way of pressing the oil pump pickup into the port on the pump itself? The Melling pump comes this way, but the interference fit and tightness it creates makes it very difficult to press it in. I already have figured out where it needs to be and and marked it and plan on tack welding it once it is in place, but I haven't come up with a way to press it into place. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Pieces of pipe, with pipe cap, and cut as per photo.
Half-pipe sections tack-welded around the pickup tube.
Use hammer to hit the end of the pipe. Bolting the oil pump to the engine gives a steady base during this step. Also use a cardboard template to simulate the oil pan. The pickup must be at a certain distance from the bottom of the oil pan.
Once the pickup tube is pressed in place, take the assembly off the engine, and cut off the pressing tool.
Due to the questionable metallurgy of tack-welding steel to cast iron, I decided to silver-solder my pickup tube in place.
Thanks. I will use this method when I get my engine back from the build and start putting it back together. I like the idea of silver soldering. I have an oxy-acetylene setup from when I did air conditioning work and some sticks of silver solder. Sounds like a better idea.
One last thing, what diameter is the piping?
[This message has been edited by eti engineer (edited 03-08-2021).]
Use the open end of a wrench that fits snugly above the "bubble" to measure tube diameter. I'm pretty sure that's all I used to tap the tube into the oil pump as well.
There's even a driver tool like that available for these things.
Use the open end of a wrench that fits snugly above the "bubble" to measure tube diameter. I'm pretty sure that's all I used to tap the tube into the oil pump as well.
There's even a driver tool like that available for these things.
Thanks for your idea. I will be looking around, now that I have some ideas from those who have been here before...
Another area where you should pay attention is on the inside of the pump. These pictures are before and after blueprinting my oil pumps. 1st thing is, get the 3.4 pump because it has a bigger diameter pick up tube. Once you've made that choice disassamble the pump and open the passeges to match the tube. On the exhaust side of the pump also do the same. Because of the restriction on the pumps due to poor casting design, if you look at the pictures the unported pump inlet (picture 3) makes the pump prone to cavitation. By doing this mod on the pump you'll increase the pump's volume drastically. The other area where you can save a couple of ponys is on the gears. A stock pump feels draggy if you turn it by hand. If you take it appart and massage the gears with emery cloth to make them shine and then put them together, you'll feel the difference when turning it by hand compared to the stock pump. Since I make all my power NA, every little bit helps!
