Paul:
The oil pump drive gear problems only appear on very high reving B
series engines where the internal stresses and oil control become very
difficult to understand when the only evidence is a pile of broken pieces. The
standard oil pump drive when installed correctly will not give you any problems
in your intended application.
I discussed this issue with Kent Prather at MG2003 during a class on
engine building and he was of the opinion that the oil pump drive gear is not a
problem if care is taken to shim the gear correctly. Of course what he
determines to be correctly at 8000 rpm is a Kent Prather secret.
Kelvin.
> Sorry, I was unclear in my original post. I have no
> intention of building an 8000 RPM full race engine, as
> this "introduction to racing" would imply. My car is
> going to be a dual-purpose street and track car. As a
> result, changing the oil pump gear every sixteen hours
> (which would be necessary no matter how hard the car
> was running, because of its "sacrificial" nature) is
> not an option. WAY too big a PITA. The engine will
> be built largely stock, but with some mild tuning
> mostly in the interests of reliability, not power. I
> imagine my upper RPM range is going to be 6000-6500 at
> the very most.
>
> Under these conditions, am I likely to experience the
> problem I originally referenced? Will the steel oil
> pump gear damage the steel cam gear that it runs off
> of?
>
> Thanks again,
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