oil pump drive gear
so ban me. im not going to spend hours digging through all my paperwork from the past 4 years of ownership to find the oil pump part number. its not rocket science, its a melling high pressure standard volume pump. rest assured i am NOT confusing it with another pump such as a high volume. i was very specific when i ordered it to make sure it was standard volume. im sorry if thats not specific enough for you guys. i do know that there were two sizes of pickup tube and mine has the smaller of the two since that is how i ordered my canton pickup to go with my canton road race oil pan.
TECH Veteran
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,147
Likes: 62
From: Little Rock, AR
It was just an effort to help others that will read this thread doing a search. HV pumps have a reputation for doing that to the drive gears. SV not so much. There might be rare occasions or other certain circumstances involved. Might be the oil weight you use.
Tons of people are using an HP SV pump.
Tons of people are using an HP SV pump.
well if it helps any i run 5w30 mobile 1. thats all my engine has ever run in it from day one. i understand the trying to help others, but to treat people like they are confusing parts its not a good way to come off. im not the brightest crayon in the box sometimes but when i order parts im very attentive to what im getting. also with anything high pressure im sure there is going to be some back pressure as well which will put more strain on that gear. also i use the oil filters with the "anti drain back" diaphram in them. maybe those create an added strain pushing the oil past that diaphram. idk. dont have all the answers but even others have stated in this thread that their HP SV pump did the same thing to them. the only reason id worry about putting a harder gear in my engine is it might damage the cam. right now the only part that appears to wear out is the pump drive gear and that is far more acceptable (IMO) than the drive gear chewing up the cam. i know now to keep an eye on it and will continue to do so. a gasket set for the intake is about 15 dollars and well worth it to pull it off and inspect that geat in about 20k miles. ill probably just put a new gear on my other assembly and rotate them each time i yank the intake. preventative maintance now.... just with work and family i dont have the time or energy to search for that part number right now. if i can over this weekend ill post it up.
Has anyone tried the "everwear" (I think that's the name of it) drive gear by comp cams? It's composite so I'm not sure how the life would be, but at least it wouldn't send metal through the bearings. I don't want composites/plastic running through them either, but it's less harmful than metal. I'm not even sure they make one that would fit. It's just a thought that hit me.
You could buy the composite gear,since the shaft sizes are not the same a sleeve will have to be machined to make up the difference.I still do not understand why some people would not want to use the herron billet drive,with a composite gear.Spend big dollars on the bottom end and then put it to the test with a $50 pos part that could ruin it all.And Im not sayin the stock ones do not work,but I think the design is not the greatest with its one bolt that holds it down.I also run mobil1 5W30 and drove mine home 3 miles as well,but the bearings did not look very good so I rebuilt it.. Again.Why not just do it right the first time with the right parts? I have said this before and will say it again,there needs to be a sticky about this problem.Oh and it helps to put a groove in the housing for direct oil spray to the gear. I just hate having to look at the oil pressure gauge every two seconds,and thats what you will be doing soon....
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Verdad Gallardo TECH Veteran
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,147
Likes: 62
From: Little Rock, AR
well if it helps any i run 5w30 mobile 1. thats all my engine has ever run in it from day one. i understand the trying to help others, but to treat people like they are confusing parts its not a good way to come off. im not the brightest crayon in the box sometimes but when i order parts im very attentive to what im getting. also with anything high pressure im sure there is going to be some back pressure as well which will put more strain on that gear. also i use the oil filters with the "anti drain back" diaphram in them. maybe those create an added strain pushing the oil past that diaphram. idk. dont have all the answers but even others have stated in this thread that their HP SV pump did the same thing to them. the only reason id worry about putting a harder gear in my engine is it might damage the cam. right now the only part that appears to wear out is the pump drive gear and that is far more acceptable (IMO) than the drive gear chewing up the cam. i know now to keep an eye on it and will continue to do so. a gasket set for the intake is about 15 dollars and well worth it to pull it off and inspect that geat in about 20k miles. ill probably just put a new gear on my other assembly and rotate them each time i yank the intake. preventative maintance now.... just with work and family i dont have the time or energy to search for that part number right now. if i can over this weekend ill post it up.
One other person said it happened to them. Honestly, the two of you are the only ones I can recall having stripped drive gears with an SV pump in the 12+ years I have been watching internet bulletin boards (not to say there aren't some out there). It would be alarming if everyone with an HV SV puimp pulled their drive gear and it looked like yours.
Thanks for reporting the oil weight. Only the future will tell if more of this happens. That's why it is good to have some hard facts when people search for like problems.
The one thing I do not understand is how a hv pump can be run (with the correct gear on the cam and drive,billet cam,cast cam,melonized gear ect.) with a traditional intake/distributor with a stock pan and proper bearing clearances not have this failure?Maybe just a couple of bad drive gears could have made it out from the factory? Or is it the fact that the melling pump that is sold as the stock replacement is really a HV pump? OP drop the pan and check the pump,mine was a high volume,get a new pump and note the difference of the gear length..
so is there no stock replacement gear drive?? i have my engine apart, and have just installed the melling sv pump (m-155) is the part #, and i used the melling pump shaft with the steel coupler IS-55E.
am i going to have an issue with these? I also bought that metal retainer that goes over the pump drive that a member here sells.. im going to install the GM LT4 Hot cam as well.
am i going to have an issue with these? I also bought that metal retainer that goes over the pump drive that a member here sells.. im going to install the GM LT4 Hot cam as well.
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,157
Likes: 1
From: Kingfisher Oklahoma
The one thing I do not understand is how a hv pump can be run (with the correct gear on the cam and drive,billet cam,cast cam,melonized gear ect.) with a traditional intake/distributor with a stock pan and proper bearing clearances not have this failure?Maybe just a couple of bad drive gears could have made it out from the factory? Or is it the fact that the melling pump that is sold as the stock replacement is really a HV pump? OP drop the pan and check the pump,mine was a high volume,get a new pump and note the difference of the gear length..
my friend and I built his LT1 and he bought the parts and got a HV pump , I said oh well you have it we'll use it, it as well is still running strong and that was over 10 years ago.
I dont think the problem is the pump.
