More Aftermarket Headaches

Hello again, here's some more trials and tribulations of getting this engine together.

I was able to clean the oil pan pretty well and of course a new gasket. I also replaced the drain plug for one with a magnet built into it.

A brand new Wells brand coolant pump.

Now here's one of those what were people thinking moments. Why on earth did the previous owner paint the inside of the rocker cover? That paint can flake off and plug up the oil pump inlet screen. It has to go.

Done.

This is the oil and additive I put in to break in the new parts.

And I primed it on this stand and that's when things became interesting.

The most disturbing was the oil pressure gauge reading 85 PSI. The other disturbing bit was even with restricting the oil flow to the rockers it was pouring out.

Back to the high pressure, with even as roughly the same speed as an old 78 record on the distributor it was holding 85 PSI. Anything faster with the drill and pressure held constant so I was convinced the bypass valve is set to that ridiculously high pressure.

I did some research and it turns out others are having the same problem as well with Melling HV pumps. When I look up the standard pump and HV pump on Mellings website they state the pumps have the same bypass pressure. My instincts told me that probably was not true. So I bought the standard volume pump and another new oil pan gasket.

Nothing I enjoy more is redoing work I just completed. (sarky as sarky gets)

Geeze the new standard oil pump had no oil or coating on the parts. The pump was entirely bone dry. This is just sad.

Round 2.

This time 60 PSI max was noted. Around 300 RPM the pressure held at 60 PSI and anything up to the drills max speed of around 800 RPM it still stayed at 60 PSI so that's the set point of the bypass valve.

My words to Melling; NO, your standard pump and HV are not calibrated for the same pressure. It wouldn't surprise me if someone on the line is putting the wrong bypass springs in the HV pumps.

Well, there goes 70 dollars and 4 hours of labour down the tubes. But at least it's working proper now.

Note:

I measured oil pressure from the sender location on the oil filter adapter. Wally World had the only diesel 10W30 oil I could find and it just happened to be Ford brand. The distributor is some over seas thing, but is based on the Duraspark distributor. I refuse to run points in any vehicle that will drive on the road and anything especially that has a hint of any kind of performance.