Lets Talk About Oil Pumps!

What type of oil pump have you use for a mild to stout "street" motor?

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Valkman

Valkman

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I'm in the process of putting together a motor for high performance "street" use. I'm looking more at torque and mid range power than a 6000 rpm top end beast. In choosing the right oil pump I've found a whole lot of conflicting information on whether to use high volume (HV) or standard volume (SV), high pressure (HP) or standard pressure oil pumps! From all the books to forums I've read some say neither or both is needed, and some say neither or both could cause damage in such an application.

Here is the question (I would like this based on experience and not so much an opinion on what one has read somewhere, again there's lots of opinion out there already :rolleyes:) : What type of pump have you used for a daily drive-able "street" motor: HV and/or HP or neither? If you could please vote in the poll and post an explanation as how that worked out for you?
 
The more Oil pressure you have, the more parasitic HP loss you will have. HV pumps tend to fill up the Valve train areas. Nothing wrong with a stock type pump. IMO.
 
I have run HV pumps, but I don't anymore. I just use a regular oil pump
 
IMO it also depends how the motor is assembled, meaning tight or loose bearing clearance. I've always run HV pumps on my street strip motors because I usually run the bearings on the loose side and I want to keep a lot of oil flushing over the bearings. This is a subject where you will get many schools of thought.
 
340doc said:
IMO it also depends how the motor is assembled, meaning tight or loose bearing clearance. I've always run HV pumps on my street strip motors because I usually run the bearings on the loose side and I want to keep a lot of oil flushing over the bearings. This is a subject where you will get many schools of thought.
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Being mainly a street motor, I'm probably going to go with stock specs to keep it simple.
 
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Intended use and clearances determine the pump you need. HV pumps waste power and create heat when used where they don't need to be. If you're using stock clearances and running up to 6K, you're fine with a stock volume pump, but I would add a high pressure relief spring to it to make sure the pump is capable of keeping enough pressure at 6K.
 
moper said:
Intended use and clearances determine the pump you need. HV pumps waste power and create heat when used where they don't need to be. If you're using stock clearances and running up to 6K, you're fine with a stock volume pump, but I would add a high pressure relief spring to it to make sure the pump is capable of keeping enough pressure at 6K.
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^^^
Always an pleasure Sir & spoken for truth... at 100% dutycycle --- road race, marine,
etc, pressure is temperature dependent. I.e, a properly designed lubrication system
must have an oil cooler.
Apologies moper, for the tangential post.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Don't be talkin about genitals here, there might be children present. LOL
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That's it Mr... ahahahahaha, You & Kitty are sooooo of the Christmas list . na na na na na.
 
And then there's part where you really should have a hardened pump drive shaft if you use a high pressure pump or risk snapping it and blowing a perfectly good engine.
 
I had a 318 that I bought with low mileage, beautiful shape. The bearings we're showing little wear and the bore had crosshatch with very little ridge. I used a high volume on that after I did the timing chain, cam and gaskets and seals. I probably shouldn't have run that pump. I ran it for years and finally pulled it to put in my new 360. That has a standard pump and great oil pressure, I'll only use the HV pump on a really loose engine. I don't see any reason to run a high pressure pump on a street motor..
 
With the right bearing clearances, either will work fine. Just remember if you run the high volume pump to run the hardened intermediate shaft with it or you can expect to twist the stock one to pieces.
 
RustyRatRod said:
With the right bearing clearances, either will work fine. Just remember if you run the high volume pump to run the hardened intermediate shaft with it or you can expect to twist the stock one to pieces.
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Look up there. ^^^ :D
 
I've run high volume pumps with high pressure springs for years in stock engines with stock pans with no problems. I've put over 200,000 k on them. I always use the hardened distributor drive shaft also.

I would rather use a few more horsepower to drive the pump, than to run it with not enough oil or oil pressure... Plus it can compensate for the extra clearance when the engine gets high mileage...
 
krazykuda said:
I've run high volume pumps with high pressure springs for years in stock engines with stock pans with no problems. I've put over 200,000 k on them. I always use the hardened distributor drive shaft also.

I would rather use a few more horsepower to drive the pump, than to run it with not enough oil or oil pressure... Plus it can compensate for the extra clearance when the engine gets high mileage...
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No kiddin. It's slap splittin hairs to talk about how much HP an oil pump takes to drive. I always thought that was a most inexperienced comment. But you know......you caint tell people anything around here.
 
RustyRatRod said:
No kiddin. It's slap splittin hairs to talk about how much HP an oil pump takes to drive. I always thought that was a most inexperienced comment. But you know......you caint tell people anything around here.
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If you can't make enough horsepower to run a good oil pump (and other accessories), then you shouldn't be building and engine....
 

...........I have always went by how big or small the bearing clearances are when choosing an oil pump.....with todays precision machining tolerances are usually kept on the small side so then a stock volume/pressure is all that's needed..........kim......but like Karl said I have run the hv pump in any engine from mild to wild...
 
TrailBeast said:
And then there's part where you really should have a hardened pump drive shaft if you use a high pressure pump or risk snapping it and blowing a perfectly good engine.
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Is this needed on a standard pump?
 
Valkman said:
Is this needed on a standard pump?
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Nope, a standard shaft is just fine with a standard pump. (unless you just want a hardened shaft for the extra strength)
Especially if you plan on running a thinner oil, and what some don't realize is that oil pressure isn't all that matters.
Good flow (gpm) of cool oil over the bearings is just as important.
For example I can have 80lbs at startup and 40 hot idling with 20-50 oil which sounds good, but 70 at startup and 30 idling in the same motor is actually better for the bearings because it cools them better.

Then there's the overthinking it trap also. :D
 
Correct if I'm wrong, but I would think that the main purpose here is to get the right amount of oil to were it's needed. Any excess pressure would cause excess heat and unnecessary wear?
 
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