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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Oil journals drilled out to ½'.

My '78 roadster with a '63 buick engine is starting to lose power and is making those irritating noises from the lifter/rocker area. I suspect I will be doing a rebuild on my engine in the very near future...(suspect worn cam) Question, does anyone have any info on how to increase the oil flow/oil pressure on these engines? Such as installing a higher volume oil pump. I also have heard increasing the oil journal diameter to 1/2 inch has been done with success. ( I understand the march 1985 hot rod magazine has a detailed article on this subject. Any help will be appreciated!
Mike Maloney


When I first rebuilt my '63 Buick motor, I re-used the original front cover and oil pump valve body, and I used one of those stupid high volume kits with extended-length gears. I shouldn't have. The wear surface on the valve body was hard anodized, but it had gotten scuffed up. End-clearance (between gears and that surface) seems to be important, and with the aluminum spacer you add variables including an extra thickness of gasket. I seemed to have enough flow and pressure to get by, but the pump would lose prime.

Anyway, I replaced the front cover, gears, and valve body with brand-new V6 parts from the local Buick dealer. (I threw away the extended gears and spacer.) That was one of the best things I ever did for my MG. It's been absolutely trouble-free ever since. I have oil pressure nearly as soon as the starter spins, and good pressure at all speeds. The lifters never complain.

Bottom line, I recommend just re-newing the critical parts, and not messing with band-aid fixes and dodgy aftermarket parts.

I had a happy surprise to. When I put it all together, I found the weird filter mounting angle of the "metric" oil pump allowed me to spin on a filter directly.
Curtis

I had Phil Baker do the oiling system mod to my engine years ago. He's the guy in the Hot Rod article, but I think he has since retired now.
I believe Dan at D+D fabrications can also do the mod for you.
Basiclly what is done, the suction passages are enlarged to 1/2" and the 90 degreed corner's are radiused (spelling) using a rounded ball reamer.
The upgrade also uses longer gears and a spacer plate. However the kit Phil used is a Melling kit, that has a steel spacer plate, and has much better tolerences then the aluminum kit Curtis is refering to.
I have used both kit's, and the Melling kit has closer side gear tolerence by a few thousand's, which is a lot!
Oil pressure is much more constant with the Melling kit. On mine the pressure is 30 psi @ idle 50 @ cruise rpm's, with the oil hot or cold.
bill jacobson

Mike,

I run a SD1 Rover in my B, but have seen that there are differnt sizes of oilpumps on the 215's.

BOP and early Rover, even MGB GT V8 had the smaller gearset installed and some specialists offer conversion kits, containing a Spacer and the larger gears.

If you can use a good Buick V6 frontcover, it will have this modification from stock allready, but check out dte dizzy, that has a different driveshaft compared to the BOP V8 version. The Rover dizzy will cure this problem.

Another point is the oil presure valve in the MGB GT V8 oil pump cover. This valve was uprated to give a little more of presure for the MG than it was common on Rover and Range Rover engines.

A lot of details can be found on the homepage of RPI engeneering in the UK.

Ralph
Ralph

I used a TRW high volume pump kit for a Buick 231 (3.8L) on my Rover P6 timing cover, I think the spacer is steel or cast iron. The kit included a number of different thickness gaskets and different psi oil pressure relief valve springs. The instructions have you measure the depth of the gears with included feeler gages and select appropriate gaskets. I have great oil pressure 60 psi driving hot, 40 psi idling hot ~800 rpm.
Jake Voelckers

A good 2nd hand later front cover is probably cheaper than spacer kits anyway.
Peter

Curtis, if you have any details on the parts you used along with part#'s I would really appreciate it...

Bill, I have called Melling and they only offer a "regular" (not high volume) kit...the part # they quoted was K-20H...do you have any detail on the part #'s used?

Jake, same as above, do you have any detail on the parts used or any other info?

Thanks for the help guys!
Mike Maloney


Mike, I don't think I still have receipts, etc.

This might help a little. The current issue of the British V8 newsletter has Kurt Schley's definitive article on BOP/Rover front cover alternatives, including photos. You can download it FREE at http://www.britishv8.org The V6 "metric" pump appears in one photo (attached to a V6 front cover) but I can't find a part number. (I know I've seen it around here somewhere! Anyway, they'll be able to find you one at your local Buick parts counter. D&D may still sell it too...) The issue also has an article on modifications to the Rover pump, and an article on sumps including remarks on over-size pickup tubes.

I think there's also an article on oil pumps in Volume 9 Issue 2, but I can't seem to find my copy of that issue and it's not downloadable yet. One of these days we'll get that whole library of information fully "searchable"...

I thought this article was interesting: http://www.gmhightechperformance.com/tech/0207gmhtp_buick/
(Particularly, I noted a comment about how if you increase passage sizes you must increase pump capacity too.)

I hope that helps!
Curtis

The correct Melling part number for the high volume oil pump repair kit is K-201HV.

This kit may be no longer available, but I still have one on the shelf.
Jim Stuart

Made the 130 mile trip from the Dayton area to the BCD in Toledo, Ohio today...nice show and several V8's in attendance(good to see Harvey Liechti and Bernie Posey)...while there ran into Tom Hoagland and decided to run up to his shop after the show in Adrian, Michigan...while there saw smorgisbord of V8 projects under way for various customers..talk about eye candy! Tom has a very impressive operation there...Tom just happened to have an extra Mellings K-201HV oil pump on hand and was nice enough to sell it to me (thanks for the info Jim Stuart) Round trip distance on a Sunday?
400 miles...Seeing the cars at Toledo BCD and Tom Hoaglands V8 conversion operation? Priceless!
Mike Maloney

This thread was discussed between 27/05/2006 and 05/06/2006

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