The LS's oiling system looks more convoluted than Buick's. It draws oil from the rear sump to the front mounted pump, the pump sends it back to the rear of the block then up, hits the OPSU, then forward thru the left lifter galley and then oils the mains. And theres people that think the LS's oiling is superior to Buick's??? Looks VERY VERY similar, and worse in some ways.
The crank driven gerotor type pump is way better than our cam driven gear pump. It would be awesome if we could make a 3800 oil pump work in our front covers.
Thats the only upside to it, is the oil pump being crank driven instead of half speed. Buick went to the gerotor on the 3.8 in the '90s, no issues ever again as far as oiling, the mighty 3.8 became a legend.
Sure would! Eliminate cam bearing wear and front face of block wear from cam. Also being driven crank speed instead of half speed, Im sure nearly all issues related to oiling would be gone.
I also believe being the pump runs at crank speed is what saves the LS from suffering the pitfalls the Buick oiling system does. So that brings me to the common philosophy that Buicks aluminum oil pump housing encasing the steel gears causing oil pressure drop at idle...... which Im sure it does, BUT, the LS pump is of the same construction, aluminum housing with steel rotors, BUT, a/the gerotor pump is driven twice as fast, Im sure the same thing happens as far as expansion, but its compensated by the faster pump speed at idle I've read the gerotor design is more efficient than a gear type pump, so that probably plays into it. Mopar uses a front mounted cam driven gerotor pump on their big blocks, never heard any stories about that design, BUT I think their pump is all iron, so even driven at half crank speed the clearances stay put even when hot. Im thinking too much again
I’m thinking the belt driven oil pump should solve any oiling issues. A nice SRE oil Pan with lots of oil control, and the pump sucks out of the bottom of the pan through a large line, no restrictions then straight to the pump that can be adjusted. The previous owner had it on a twin turbo 455 and he found no issues with his oiling.
yes that’s what my good engine will run, belt driven weever adjustable pump. I can adjust the oil pressure with an Allen key.
The LS also isn't feeding one lifter bank through a tiny groove in the front cam bearing. I would also bet the oil passages are much larger and the oil pump has the capacity to keep them full.
When looking at the repo cover it would have been beneficial to leave around the gear pocket thick instead of copying the factory curves and scallop’s. Leave it more squared off so you have a half inch or more of aluminum therefore expanding less. Melling makes improved design gears called shark tooth for other manufactures pumps maybe could be adapted to our pumps
Rover also went to a gearotor pump and their cover will bolt up, but it adds bulk at the front of the engine and the Rover crank snout is longer. Jim
Funny, here I thought we solved the oiling issues years ago. Most of which would have not been solved by a "better pump", because they were volume issues caused by passages too small, not pressure problems. KB tried to solve the pressure issue with his long gears and stiff bypass springs, but the issue was not low pressure, that was simply a result of the real issue. Only when you get into the high flow, big clearance Hi-HP stuff in an iron block did the deficiencies in the "as factory designed" oil pump show up. And even then, it was often not the pumps fault.. not much you can do when the main galley is getting exposed by the lifter not being long enough on a high lift race roller cam. At that point in time, then you simply bolt on an external pump, seal up the main galley and overhead oil the center three mains, and be done with it.. I built one that was just shy of 900 Hp, that lasted nearly 20 years, before it retired in favor of a bigger shortblock.. I was delighted to hear it never failed.. But for most of you, I would say 98 out of 100, your not going to have to worry about that. Only those brave souls still building race motors from factory blocks have to worry about that. The advent of the aftermarket blocks have pretty much eliminated the oiling issues, even with the factory pump. ya, it took a while to figure out the pump and windage stuff that this new block wanted, but once we came up with the recipe, it's been foolproof.. I have half a dozen 800+ HP bracket motors out there, with the TA block, that have no issues at all with the factory pump and pickup setup. I am right now converting back the very first one I built, that has the TA scavenger on it, for no other reason than all the external lines and bs are a packaging nitemare.. and they simply are no longer required. When that one was built, it got the very first SRE oil pan, and there was no internal pickup.. so I had no choice. Last year, that motor cracked a fitting on the inlet side of the pump, luckily we caught it on the dyno, or it could have broke on the track, and took out the entire engine.. or worst. We took that as a sign to simplify the system, and eliminate as many failure points as you can. And any of you that have started up your LS motor on a cold morning, and watched the oil pressure gauge not move, then you can attest that that system is not foolproof either. JW
What do you need an aftermarket block for. You can’t feed the block you have with the cylinder heads that are available? To the best of my knowledge I don’t hear of anybody tearing up blocks because of too much power and the block can’t handle it
LOL, Yep, thats the first thing I look at when I start the wifes Tahoe, it dont move too fast, Hence the reason for my post, the LS bottom end "aint all that" ITS THE HEADS!
