Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Meridian, MS | I’m building my first ‘61 318 poly engine and I am having a hard time finding a replacement oil pump pickup tube. If I don’t have to, I’d rather not reuse the original - I ordered a Melling 72-S2 oil pump pickup tube (I believe this is for a 318LA block) and installed it on the new oil pump, bolted the oil pump to the rear cap, laid the oil pan gaskets on the block, and placed the oil pan on top of the gaskets to simulate how it would be if installed. I rotated the crank around and it seems clear just fine and the oil pan seemed to line up with the bolt holes on the block just fine. Has anyone tried this before? The only potential issue (if it’s an issue at all) seemed to be that the strainer seemed to sit far foward in the sump(center sump)(may be an issue if going up a hill?). Any thoughts/technical advice on oil pump pickup tube interchange/options?
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Expert
Posts: 3027
Location: N.W. Fla. | 57chizler - 2020-02-07 11:30 AM
If the original strainer is mostly OK and just caked with crud, soak it in a flammable liquid and set it afire. "Burning out" carboned-up parts is an old trick that works well, just wash out the ash after burning. Or oven cleaner. |
Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Meridian, MS | Well I did it, I got the pickup tube installed. It went pretty easy, after some fitting and measuring I determined that I need to cut 2 1/2" off of the Melling 72-S2 pickup tube. I took the tube to a local machine shop and they were able to cut it down and rethread it. I put it on the pump, rotated the crank over and it cleared fine. I then leveled the block on the motor stand then leveled the strainer and measured from the highest point on the strainer to the bottom of the block - 7 1/4". The oil pan is 7 1/2" at it tallest point on the sump plus approximately 1/8" for the gaskets left me with about 3/8" clearance on the strainer. Once I saw all that was good, I scribed the location of the pickup tube on the pump body, disassembled the oil pump, MIG welded the tube to the pump body, blew everything out with compressed air, then reassembled the oil pump, installed it on the rear cap and torque it down. Melling 72-S2 with shipping = $31.34 Machine Shop Work = $10.00 Total Investment = $41.34 Supposing it works fine, I'd say I did alright. I haven't finished assembling the engine yet so if anyone sees where I may be going wrong, please don't hesitate to let me know. If not, I hope this information is useful to anyone building a 318 Poly!
Edited by Chrisbarber0904 2020-02-17 1:06 AM
(Oil Pump Pickup Tube.jpg)
(Oil Pump Pickup Tube 1.jpg)
(Oil Pan.jpg)
Attachments ---------------- Oil Pump Pickup Tube.jpg (101KB - 180 downloads) Oil Pump Pickup Tube 1.jpg (104KB - 177 downloads) Oil Pan.jpg (97KB - 166 downloads)
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