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Normally I would reuse my oil pump, after checking out the clearances, but upon
disassembly, I found the rotor had ingested some small metal parts that left some nicks
in the rotor.
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At about $36 for a new Melling high volume pump (high volume because of the loose race
clearances at the crank) I wasn't about to use a questionable oil pump.
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After mocking up the oil pump, I found out it hit the front main stud.
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Cutting the stud down solved that problem.
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The hole in the pickup tube support bracket was drilled out to 1/2" to accomondate the larger main
stud, and a 1/2" nut with some locktite on it finished the oil pump assembly.
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I used a one piece oil pan seal from Ford made for a '95 Lightning. It's a steel core gasket
for the rails, and should be reusable.
The engine was flipped rightside, filled with oil, and the rest of the core plugs were
installed. There are three at the rear of the block, next to the cam plug, and two on the side of
the block for antifreeze. Then the oil pressure sender was installed, and the engine was filled with
oil. I primed the oil system using an old distributor shaft and a drill. Don't try this with
anything less than a 1/2" drill folks, you'll burn out a 3/8" drill or a cordless.
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Next comes the distributor. Doing this right will make startup much easier. Here's my little
trick for "static timing". Put your engine at desired timing at idle. Since my distributor has
no advance, I set the balancer at 31 degrees. Then drop in the distributor with the rotor pointing
towards the number 1 cylinder. Then pull the rotor off, look at the starwheel, and line it
up on the pickup. You should get within 2 degrees using this method.
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The last step is to bolt on the valvecovers, tape the intake manifold closed, and put the cap and
rotor back on. That's it, engine is ready to go to the dyno. Dyno pulls are on March 7th, we'll
find out if I did everything right.
Update: Information on the dyno sessions can be found here.
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