ta covers The TA cover has a stock pump w/external adjustment, also _refinements in oil passages within the cover-better volume and pressure
I had a similar deal happen, but all that happened with my new 462" BBB in my roadster - with exactly 100 miles on the clock - was that I heard a click while pulling away from an out in the country stopsign and saw zero oil pressure. Shut the engine down and coasted into a farm driveway where I got permission to leave the roadster while I walked the four miles home for the trailer. What I found when I opened up the timing cover was that the oil pump gear (KB hi-volume pump) had cracked and was spinning on the shaft. The distributor gear and distributor were not harmed. From what I could see, it looked like a small piece of weld broke off the inside of the new 5/8" oil pump pickup tube and got into the gears thereby locking them up. I was lucky, the crank and bearings were unharmed, but it goes to show that some shoddy work on a somewhat inexpensive piece can create large problems.
Yep, too much oil pressure can cause issues with the HV pump. Not warming up the engine to operating temp with a HV pump only adds to the problem. How many miles did the engine have on it with the HV pump prior to this FUBAR incident?
Bad Rap??? Ran one for years in Hawaii (warm weather) on two 455's (put 30,000+ miles on both engines with the HV pumps installed) with no incidents. The Chevy guy that set up these Buick engines obviously knew what he was doing (he called KB up to discuss the installation). Needless to say he wasn't impressed with the Buick style oil pump system, but obviously did a good job. He "blueprinted" the pump/housing. He let me watch; I thought he just wanted to charge more for the job. :spank: I never knew you could blueprint an oil pump. But I was wrong. Among other things, he told / showed me the following: Grease and check the way the distributor gear meshes with the camshaft gear. Don't assume they mesh correctly even when you buy genuine GM parts. Sometimes their supply vendors have bad days too. He told me as the gears wear, they can take as "set" that might make it impossible to just toss on a new gear and expect it to mesh correctly with the old gear. Manually check the bypass valve assembly. Make sure that the bypass assembly can open all the way and close properly, especially if you use an adjustable oil pressure regulator. He used an oddball Ford spring per KB's over the phone instructions. Never heard of that since. I feel that the HV oil pump still has an "niche" market and will always be available to those who want them. What's the "niche" market? Worn-out engines that really should be rebuilt. My friend reluctantly (based on what he's heard on the internet) installed a HV oil pump on his 71 Riv GS. He knew his engine was old and worn-out and should be rebuilt, but didn't have the money, but still wanted to drive the car. It's been a few years, and he told me that the oil pressure is just fine and he's had no problems with the HV pump. His Riv, like my old Riv was only driven on the street with very mild street camshafts. Maybe that's why we got away with using these HV pumps.
Hey just thought I would chime in a little bit about my experience with a HV pump. My BBB regal I used to have, had an old worn out 430 in it and with a HV pump and straight 60w oil I could get 50 psi on the highway and maybe 5 idling. Obviously the poor old thing needed help. While cruising to work one morning the 430 just died and when I finally got it running it missed like crazy, then I noticed the oil gauge went to lunch, or left the building... so I shut it off and when I pulled the distributor out, the gear just fell down in the cover. The pin that holds the gear on just snapped off with the end of the shaft. That was all with a brass gear. When I dug the gear out of the cover it looked great. Guess, that gear wasn't my weakest link in that thing. I sure like having a well built motor, running 10w-30 on a hot day, and getting 30 psi at idle and 60 to 70 psi on the highway, better than putting a band-aid on a problem. Unfortunately, I'm usually too much of a tight-wad to rebuild a motor unless its in a car I plan to have for a long time.
