Thread: How to avoid catastrophe

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Hey guys.

What should I do, besides sweat, about a high volume oil pump in my dad's FE 427? I heard that the Ford distributor gear is not the strongest thing in the world. She is a street motor. Do we pull the distributor every once an a while to inspect it? Is there a stronger replacement? He is running a mechanical roller cam.

-CJP

Pull the pan and replace the pump with a standard unit is what I would do. A standard volume/pressure pump will be all you ever need on a street motor.

Is the bypass valve in the block being used?

Yes the bypass valves are being used. This is the same engine that had oil pressure problems, so they "remembered" those valves and "opened" them.

-CJP

I always ran bronze gears with mech rollers in my fe's. Never a problem.
You should have the big after market oil pump drive for sure. Probably
SVO makes them today, or at least sells them.
Ron

unless you're running a large pan, then get rid of the HV oil pump.... you'll run your pan dry and start wearing bearings faster...... i reccomend even when running a standard oil pump to use the heavy duty pump drive.... i'd rather put $30 extra into prevention than to put $3000 into a rebuild

hey thanks for the reply guys!

Yes the pan is massive, 10 quart oil change. I am purrty sure she has a HD pump drive. ill 2x check that one though. So if we are running a bronze gear we should be in the clear?

-CJP

Only some rollers call for the bronze gear. Some use the plain steel gear. I'd check with the cam co and see what they recommend. With the big ol pan you'd be just fine with the HV/HP pump. If you haven't replaced the pump yet call Doug at www.precisionoilpumps.com He'll hook you up.

Bronze gears are for billet cams where they will chew up a steel gear in no time.
I've had a few FE's that collapsed the lifters if they idled for some time. A high volume pump fixed that nicely. Stock pan, never a problem with "pumping the pan dry". That's an urban legend.

Bronze and steel gears for steel billet/roller camshafts and cast iron gears for the old cast camshafts. Now they have polymer gears!!!

This is the HD oil pump drive = M-6605-A427 390/427/428

There is no dist gear listing for FE engines in the '08 SVT Catalog.

This is from their write up, p 146:

"MATERIAL SELECTION NOTES:
Cast iron gears are compatible with cast iron camshafts (hydraulic or solid flat tappet type).
Steel gears are compatible with billet steel camshafts (hydraulic roller tappet type).
Bronze gears can be used with either cast iron or billet steel camshafts. They are usually
recommended by manufacturers of aftermarket billet steel solid roller tappet camshafts.
Since the bronze is softer than cast iron or steel, it will wear at a faster rate.
Polymer gears are compatible with all camshafts."

hey thanks a bunch for the help guys. ur great! I can sleep at night now!

-CJP