Has anybody just bypassed this gallery instead of drilling and hoping they don't bust off a drill in the process. I know this has been done, can't find anything on it though. I don't want to buy the expensive one time use bit. I don't want to buy the expesive 5/8 pick up, relative to the big block chevy one I plan to integrating into the pan I am building. I just want to run an external line from the vac side of the internal oil pumpto the pick up in the pan. Block looks too thin(i may be wrong) to cross drill and tap from the side to tag off right behind the front cover. Ideas? pix?
I believe Poston oil pan has an external oil line for the oil pickup on the girdles pan. Take a look in there catalog and she if this helps you. Weekender
I was thinking the same thing. A person could probably run an external line from the oil pan to the proper place on the front cover. You would also need to seal the stock oil pickup passage, a pipe plug on the front of the block would prolly work. I think the tricky part would be tapping into the front cover. Welding a bung would prolly be the best bet rather than trying to drill and tap a hole. Do I make any sense. o No:
Yep, this is quite common. You can get a whole kit from either Finishline Motorsports or AM&P. Kit comes with everything you need including the billet oil pump cover. I think it's around $500. You can call Geof Ketchum at Finishline, 1-616-765-5101, or you can call Mike Phillips at AM&P, 1-270-729-5556. Good Luck
We did it for about $50, including beer. BBC pickup, just the end, welded to the pan with with 4 1/4-20 nuts welded to the bottom to keep the pan from being crushed into the pickup and closing it off, also helps set it up for welding. Connect to a hydraulic fitting in the side of the pan. Yes, you can drill into the oil pickup gallery behind the front cover, yes it is thin. We got what threads we could to install a hydraulic fitting and then put a bead of weld around it with some high-nickel rod. We did block off the old passage where the old pickup bolts on and behind where we installed the fitting in the block. You then connect the two with a #10 hose with radiused hose ends to minimize pressure loss. You will have to do some die grinder work inside the oil passage where you installed the fitting in the block. This is in a dirt modified that gets the hell beat out of it, so it is durable. Worked slick.
Interesting..... you did everything i was planning on doing. exept welding it. great minds think alike! :laugh: I actually already have the bbc pickup and a thick tube i knocked off the lathe i plan to silver solder the pickup tube in, weld to the pan and will provide 1/2 npt threads on the outside of the pan. I take it you used 1/2 npt at the block? sound feasable. i like. didn't really think of torch welding it with a steel hyd radius. this was the part i was missing. Thanks for posting that!
You make a lot of sense. I was doubting my idea about tapping the block, and then started looking at the cover.... This is the is the tricky part I couldn't figure out. Here is a pic of the only feesable place i see to tag off of the stocker. i think this would be a heliarc situation. it would also have to come out at an angle. real fun to center a bit on. I'd probably have to set it up on the bridgeport and use and end mill. then find some place to weld it. I think this external line deal would yield a bit more pressure, and easier on the distributor gear. I think I will go withe the block idea, Thanks for the thought.
Yes, I believe the pipe size was 1/2#npt. We used the square looking pickup, but yours looks real good to me. We built our own oil pan too, to deal with the circle track issue of oil control so the square one worked better for us. good luck
external pickup I'll try to get a couple photos tomorrow to show you how my external set-up is built. It has an aftermarket pickup with a -12AN fitting TIG'd to it exiting the pass. side of the pan. We then welded a sch. 80 alum. bung to the front cover and installed another -12AN male fitting. The SS braided line runs along the pan rail with 90* and 120* hose ends. It took a bit of die grinder work to the cover and the inlet side of the pump. Pressure appears to be excellent with the limited amount of run time to date.
the AM&P unit replaces the oil filter adapter with a block that replaces all of the front cover passages. Probably more economical then working the front cover and still being left with the tortuous path for the oil to follow.
Front cover Mod for fitting I finally found the link for front cover mod your looking for. http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=10746&page=2&pp=25 I put my pickup in the exact same spot on the front cover. I worked great for me. I used a 90 Degree #12AN fitting, ground it to fit, welded it, then epoxied it just to be sure.
This is the pic i was looking for. it looks to provide a smooth path for oil to pull through. i havn't drilled the block yet. I'm still worried about the amout of "meat" i have to work with there. plus it adds a 90* to the path insead of taking one away. I already had my cover assembled, but i think it would be better to take a step back and do it this way as i was going to. I just needed to see that it worked before i trash a good cover. thanks for looking... i couldn't find it.
I couldn't get a decent photo with the engine in the car. So here is a photo when I was mocking it all up on a stand. It doesn't show a real clear shot of how the fitting in the cover came out, but I tilted it at an angle by doing a considerable amount of grinding on the cover and the sch. 80 alum. bung. The 120* -12AN fitting then comes out of the male fitting that screwed in the bung and a 90* fitting at the pan. The SS line then rides along parallel with the pan rail. The pickup tube in the pan was an aftermarket setup I picked up at one of the swap meets. I cut and modified it and then welded it to a male -12AN bulkhead fitting and used two nylon washers to sandwich it to the side of a modified deep sump steel pan. That way I could remove the pickup tube. It eliminated all sharp bends feeding the pump. It was a fairly inexpensive mod. The photo shows the pan end with the 90* fitting just hanging and not hooked up.
I really like this idea.... now that I've seen it done by two people. I 'll start cutt'n tomarrow and I have a plae in mind to weld it. I'm almost set up weld aluminum, but I'm not practiced (yet). Thanks rick, we1.
