Best oil pump manufacturers

[Moleman]

Windage tray ain't a bad idea either. Honestly I'd try and find one that's CURVED.

 

[Caman96]

The Genuine GM

Does this include the originals in our trucks being thin cast?

 

[dlindsey19]

If it's a pre 94 truck, I'd highly recommend adding in a windage tray. As far as I know it's a bolt in swap, but when it comes to oil pumps I've never had an issue out of melling. I had a high volume one in a motor where the head gasket blew and contaminated the oil with coolant and even after sucking in almost straight water it still worked fine. Pulled it out, cleaned it out with brake cleaner and it was still in another motor and working fine when I sold it almost 3 years ago. Still going down the road strong.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Does this include the originals in our trucks being thin cast?

I think the thin casting started around 1999-2000. My Mexican crate engine cast in 2005 had the thin one. I went into the pan to replace it knowing it probably had the thin one when I cammed that engine. My stock 97 L31 built in 96 had the thick casting.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

If it's a pre 94 truck, I'd highly recommend adding in a windage tray. As far as I know it's a bolt in swap, but when it comes to oil pumps I've never had an issue out of melling. I had a high volume one in a motor where the head gasket blew and contaminated the oil with coolant and even after sucking in almost straight water it still worked fine. Pulled it out, cleaned it out with brake cleaner and it was still in another motor and working fine when I sold it almost 3 years ago. Still going down the road strong.

There are plenty of examples of the failed thin casted ones floating around to where I will never run one.

 

[Schurkey]

Ok, so as a preventive measure...

...this truck is 28 years old, and probably has the original oil pump. I figured I'd wanna replace it with a good one. To keep this truck going for as long as possible. I know that once a oil pump fails, only a matter of seconds, and then severe damage is done.

You're being paranoid. The oil pump is submerged in oil. It's about the least-likely thing to fail on your engine PROVIDED you don't have the newer, light-weight casting.

The crappy casting is easily recognized by the thinner casting with "reinforcing" ribs. Depending on who is making the claims, this weaker pump started after Y2K--I've heard around 2004.
www.camaros.net/threads/check-your-melling-oil-pumps.95325/

check your Melling oil pumps

www.camaros.net

Note that this posting is from 2007, so "about two years ago" would be 2005-ish.

Apr 27, 2007
Just got off the phone with Rene at Mellings. He is saying pretty much what most of you have already indicated. New design pump was done about 2 years ago at GMs request. It is a lighter casting and is prone to breakage when used in off-road applications, or with solid motor mounts or in performance applications where higher rpms occur. In my case he strongly reccomended using the Select pump which is a heavier casting. When I aksed if they had many failures he said they had some but most were found to be failures that could be traced back to the pickup being hammered into the pump while the pump was bolted to the main bearing cap.

But then by 2010 there's claims that Melling discontinued the weak casting and went back to the older style:
www.speed-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22465

M55 pumps back to old casting? - Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

The "new generation" POS liteweight pump stopped around 06/09. The tech at melling gave me the run down the other day. Bottom line, lightweight castings are a thing of the past.

But all of this matters very little to me since I'd put the Big-Block pump in instead of the Small-Block pump. The "kit" for this has been described already--M99HV-S. You could get the same thing by buying an M77 pump, the 305S pickup tube for a 7.25 deep oil pan, and the all-steel drive rod of your choice, Melling, ARP, or other vendor.

The Big-block pump and 305S pickup tube will clear the Vortec windage tray only with some trimming of the tray.

this thing has odb1. It's kind lf hard to diagnose problems.

Get a real scan tool, and the real service manual set. OBD1 is not as difficult as it's made out to be.

Windage tray ain't a bad idea either. Honestly I'd try and find one that's got a sump in it.

Huh? What oil pan doesn't have a sump?

Every Vortec 5.7L I've pulled the pan off of has a windage tray, so they're really common. There was the same windage tray on my TBI Caprice "service replacement" crate engine, too.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Melling makes great inexpensive "unsexy" engine parts. I use their oil pumps and timing chains. They also make inexpensive OEM quality valvesprings, retainers, and keepers.

I tried putting the big-block pump on my $150 350, but I bought a Weiand oil pan and it doesn't clear. I used a new stock-style pump. Now I'll have to pull the pan back off and check to see if I have the good casting or the bad.

 

[Moleman]

You're being paranoid. The oil pump is submerged in oil. It's about the least-likely thing to fail on your engine PROVIDED you don't have the newer, light-weight casting.

The crappy casting is easily recognized by the thinner casting with "reinforcing" ribs. Depending on who is making the claims, this weaker pump started after Y2K--I've heard around 2004.
www.camaros.net/threads/check-your-melling-oil-pumps.95325/

check your Melling oil pumps

www.camaros.net

Note that this posting is from 2007, so "about two years ago" would be 2005-ish.


But then by 2010 there's claims that Melling discontinued the weak casting and went back to the older style:
www.speed-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22465

M55 pumps back to old casting? - Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

But all of this matters very little to me since I'd put the Big-Block pump in instead of the Small-Block pump. The "kit" for this has been described already--M99HV-S. You could get the same thing by buying an M77 pump, the 305S pickup tube for a 7.25 deep oil pan, and the all-steel drive rod of your choice, Melling, ARP, or other vendor.

The Big-block pump and 305S pickup tube will clear the Vortec windage tray only with some trimming of the tray.



Get a real scan tool, and the real service manual set. OBD1 is not as difficult as it's made out to be.


Huh? What oil pan doesn't have a sump?

Every Vortec 5.7L I've pulled the pan off of has a windage tray, so they're really common. There was the same windage tray on my TBI Caprice "service replacement" crate engine, too.

A curved windage tray. Instead of a flat one. There it's been corrected,leave me alone

 

[dlindsey19]

There are plenty of examples of the failed thin casted ones floating around to where I will never run one.

Really? On my 94 I never had an issue with it or any 96+ Vortec engine.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Really? On my 94 I never had an issue with it or any 96+ Vortec engine.

Unless you had a newer GM crate engine or a newer Mexican built truck that still came with a L31 up until 2007 you have probably never owned that pump. I have seen a couple of Mercruiser engines that came with the weak casting that failed because of a broken oil pump as well.