Oil Pickup

[ek02]

Has anyone had a problem with the oil pump pickup tube coming loose with a RJC spacer and deep sump pan? My oil pressure suddenly dropped, and the mechanical guage was jumping all over the place. One bolt had backed out. I put them in with loctite the last time it was apart a few months ago. Is it possible I overtorqued the bolts? I say this because the lower gasket was squeezed out pretty bad. The upper gasket looked fine. I reinstalled the pickup with new TA gaskets and used red Loctite on the bolts this time. I torqued them to 89 in lbs. I never had this problem with a stock pan and pickup.

 

[johnny's86nash]

Just ordered one of those deep pans. Hopeing not to have issues.

How was the clearance between pick-up and pan any issues??

 

[ek02]

No issues there. The pickup is about 1/4" off the bottom of the pan. The only issues were that I had to ding the pan for the main studs at the rear. Using main bolts, there is not a problem. I also had to hammer down the baffle to clear the stroker crank throws. It will fit fine on a stock engine. I ran this pan and pickup for 12,000 miles with no problem. Then I tore it down for bearings a few months ago. I ran it about 400 miles this time. I jumped on it good this weekend, and that's when I saw the oil pressure gauge go down and become erratic when I let off. I had enough pressure to limp the few miles home.

 

[1KWIKSIX]

I just installed one on my car over the weekend. I bought it used from another board member. It did need some "massaging" to fit properly on my engine.
Luckily, the previous owner had the zinc plating completely removed and outside powder coated black & the oil baffle plate had been lowered about 1/4" from the stock location. I did a mock up installation with pan gskt and used silly putty on the oil pick up (covered with Saran Wrap) and hand tightened oil pan bolts....measured with a digital vernier caliper & found the oil pick up was .702" from bottom of pan, which is way to high . Had to have a longer aluminum spacer machined . Now it sits approx. 1/4" from bottom of oil pan.
We used a lock washer & flat washer on each allen bolt that holds the oil pick up tube to bottom of block. Before blue loctiting the oil pick up to block allen bolts, we wanted to make sure there was no oil in the threaded holes , so we sprayed a non chlorinated brake cleaner in there and blew out with compressed air to ensure it was dry before we assembled. We did turn the engine over by hand to ensure there was clearance between the oil baffle plate & from the crank throws & rod studs / nuts......
Looks good now!