sargent11235

Building my 5.3L LS engine with it on the stand right now. The crank turns freely. I have installed a melling oil pump (10295) by first removing the front cover and shimming the housing on the crank shaft to equal distance of 0.003". I have read that is a good thing to do. I then torque the housing bolts down to 18 ft-lbs. I then lightly oil the gears and install them. At this point the crank still turns freely. Once I install the front cover and torque down the bolts to 10 ft-lbs the crank becomes impossible to turn. The more I loosen the front cover bolts the easier it is to turn. Any thoughts? Am I missing something? Is the crank suppose to be harder to turn? Am I tightening the bolts too tight?

Thanks

RonSSNova

iTrader: (3)

I bet the pump drive on the crank is hitting the pump body.
I went through the whole feeler gauge deal on the gears and that’s how mine came out. The crank turned, but could feel it drag.
So I pulled the gears out, shimmed the pump body to the drive instead.
GM slaps em on.

patSS/00

iTrader: (6)

Assuming the Melling pump is the same design as the original GM one, and the cover inner face is perfectly flat, maybe check the face of the gears against the pump body with a straight edge? There should be a slight clearance between the straight edge and the gears, like maybe enough for a .001 feeler gauge (just guessing). Or maybe the cover's warped?

RedXray

Are you running a double roller... maybe hitting the cover or the pump housing?

sargent11235

I think I solved my issue. Instead of shimming the housing to oil pump gear on the crank snout I shimmed the internal oil pump gear in the oil pump itself to the oil pump gear on the crank snout. Now the oil pump is fully installed and the crank seems to be spinning freely.

01CamaroSSTx

iTrader: (3)

I've yet to run into an issue with the GM slap on method but now I know what to do if it does happen.

Jenskrstd

The outer gear in the pump can only be assembled in one way, otherwise the pump gear get stuck when you torque the cover on.

G Atsma

The problem got solved, if you read the full thread. I have a feeling what you said above is a given.