I have had great success rebuilding original timing covers. Unless the water pump cavity is eroded away they can usually be rebuilt. I know several people had had bad experiences with replacement covers/ oil pumps. I'm gauging the interest level at this point. I believe I can provide a completely assembled and tested cover with all the threaded bolt holes either with good threads or heli-coiled, standard oil pump, neoprene seal, ready to bolt on. There would be a core charge (maybe $75) if your cover is too eroded to be used. You could get a cover with the correct part number and maybe date code if available. I have a small stock pile of covers I been saving. Or I could build your original. This can be done for either the 350 or 455 engines. I'm shooting for a selling price around $250. What do you guys think?
I've never found an oil squirter to be needed so never have set one up with it. Just another spot to loose pressure. Oil pump would be OE stock replacement with clearance properly set. I do not believe in using the high volume gears as they just kill the drive gear and front cam bearing. Also don't use the steel plate. I resurface the oil filter housing to provide a new wear surface. We tend to get overly concerned with oil pressure. Read my post linked here. http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/oil-pressure-concern-412.347470/ Drove this thing 2400 miles at speeds up to 100 and NEVER had higher than 20PSI oil pressure. Oil volume is what is critical but there is no practical way to measure it so we use pressure to show us the oil pump is operating.
I'd be interested. I have 3 covers and was just planning to run the one that looked the best with a new gear set, booster plate, and regulator. But for $250 it would be worth the time saved to have one already properly done!
On hold for now. Have to get the 73 ready for it's Pure Stock drag race debut in a couple weeks. Will post more if I get time to work on. Building the test fixture will take some time but I won't be selling these without test data on each one rebuilt.
Id also be interested in just a factory bare cover thats machined right Of course after that any errors would entirely be on the installer.
There are several things I do to the cover and oil pump to improve flow and you might want to consider some of them. Enlarge the oil passages radius and blend all sharp edges and turns in the flow path on both inlet and outlet side deburr the gear edges I use the booster plate. I feel it is cheap insurance at around 10 bucks and provides a stronger wear surface. I'm not sure I buy the claim that it stabilizes the pump cavity however. It does need to be ported at least enough to remove the sharp edges in the flow path. As for the flow vs pressure argument, that all comes down to bearing clearances. If the clearances are as specified by the factory and all other parts of the oiling system are correct the oil pressure will easily exceed 45psi at cruising speed and 15psi at idle with 10w40 oil. No need for extended gears. However, if your bearing clearances are .002", good luck with ever getting over 40psi even with 20w50 and STP. If you are happy with that, fine. I'm not. Jim
So here's the setup. Ran it today. You would be surprised how much air goes into the oil. I was. I am using a 7/32" hole as the restriction for now. I need to figure out what size I can use to simulate the cover being on an engine. With the drill at full speed it makes 20 PSI on the gauge. And a big mess in the can.
And no the oil pressure gauge is not tapped into the oil pickup tube. The angle of the photo just looks that way. The output side has a tee with the top feeding the gauge and the 7/32" restriction pointing down back into the "oil pan"
I need to run the same drill on an assembled engine with known good pump to see what pressure it will make and then adjust my restriction to match that pressure. That 7/32 hole moves oil like a fire hose.
