Curiousity Piqued

I realize this is an old post but I needed to bring it back for a minute.

We got this engine running a week or so ago and I quickly found that I had onitted the oil galley plug in the lifter valley. Installed the plug, refired and had 70 lbs of pressure for about five minutes, then down to 10 lbs. Checked the plug I had just installed and found it to still be in place. Pulled front cover and found the lower galley plug had popped out. Replaced plug and since I had the pan down I decided at that point to install a stock pump.

The reason I bring all of this up is because of one of the responses to this post, namely the reference to the motor going "tick tick boom". I asked what the issue with a HV pump was and got a couple of good guesses but the OP never replied as to what the issue was.

I subscribed to this board because there appears to be a pretty vast talent pool to bounce ideas off of. There also seems to be a bit of arrogance on the part of some posters. That is to be expected, I guess. But I just couldn't let that Boom comment go. It would have been nice to have that poster speak from some sort of fact rather than a generic statement with nothing to back it up.

I have learned the hard way that if a HV or HP oil pump is going into the build then screw in galley plugs are a must. Even 'staking' or 'pegging' of the plugs cannot be trusted.

If I see a post of someone asking a question in an area that I have first hand experience then I will share that experience in the hope that someone will not have to do things two or three times to get it right. Had a reply regarding galley plugs popping out been posted I probably would have reconsidered my choice of pumps while the bottom of the motor was open, on the stand, rather than changing the pump in the car.

I apologize for the apparent rant and hope this doesn't come off as a total flame but this has been in the back of my mind for quite a while and I just felt I had to say something. Maybe I shouldn't have. Dunno.

Murff
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Well put, Murff. That intake looks awesome, nice work.
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I haven't personally run into problems with them popping out with my HV on my 302, but I have heard stories. That is definitely cheap insurance to put threaded plugs in it. If my oil pressure ever takes a hit, that will be the first place I look.

the fact that StangNinjak did not elaborate when you asked him to speaks volumes as far as im concerned.
in my experience with running a hv pump in a 351w,IF your engine is setup properly you should not have a problem.
when we put my engine together the bearings were set for using a hv pump and a heavy duty pump shaft was used.
the only issue Ive had is the distributor gear needed replacing but i arent sure if that was on its way out anyway,because since the new gear went on there is no visible wear on it

Same here. Been running, (well,, hell, I've always run HV pumps in all my engines), anyway, been running a Melling HV pump in my strokers since their inception.
Also wore out a dizzy drive gear, but it's a solid roller cam, and brass/whatever (soft), gear. It's gonna happen.

Anyway, like everyone else stated, if your clearances are right, and you red loctite/stake the originals ones, OR tap/use screw in plugs (best), no worries.

Good luck, have fun. :&gt[img]/forums/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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Sorry too hear you ran into problems Murff, that always sucks, but I'm with the others on this one.

I've been running a Mellings with 3 different 351W's in the Falcon for 10 years and have not experienced any issues what so ever.

That intake does look good..! Like to know what she run in the 1/4 if you ever get to the track.
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Thanks for the replies folks.

Might have been I was just feeling sorry for myself for making mistakes in my build and just needed to whine a bit. That's the tough part about building my own engine...when it don't work there's no one to blame but myself.

Sorry for taking the Dyno board so far off topic.

Murff