I bought a pump cover from eclectic innovations; don't know if they're still selling them. I called Muscle motors when I was buying parts, they didn't have them in production at that time, or couldn't answer some question I had (can't remember what the deal was... I need to start smoking pot so I have an EXCUSE for this lousy memory). So I ended up going with what I did. The part looked pretty good overall, but the o-rings on the plugs were too fat and were replaced with correct size ones. I sanded the steel wear plate that the rotors ride against because it was pretty rough. I also took a dremel to a couple of spots where the oil inlet I'm using was in the pump cover and radused the sharp edge where the oil goes around a corner.
No camera, so I couldn't take pics...
Milodon also has several options (dual or single line, and OE type filter or holes to run lines to remote filter). There is/was some gasket (the 'green' gasket) issue on some of 'em. I'm sure someone who's up on the Milodon stuff will post up about it.
I saw the 440 Sourcerers are offering similar stuff now, too.
And you're right, you plug the hole in the block where the original internal pickup went.
Also, if you're doing all this stuff, drilling out the feed holes to the main bearings (9/32" IIRC) is recommended.
A number of guys also recommend grooving the #4 journal on the cam to give full-time oil to the heads, instead of just a squirt every rotation of the cam when the holes line up. I think there's a thread in the tech archives here about big block oiling. There's also a thread on
BBD that showed how to do the main web drilling I mentioned. Unfortnately, the pics are gone, but the text is still there.
Oh, by the way, I've heard from a
very respected board member here (who ports heads and is involved with a bunch of F.A.S.T. stuff) that all that external oiling stuff isn't really necessary for most applications like mine (6K RPM - 600-ish HP). I went w/ it because a) my engine is going in a '54 pickup with a weird-shaped pan and I didn't feel like fabbing an internal pickup (and I'd have had to do fabbing no matter which way I went), and b) there's an undeniable "bling" factor to having the external oiling line.
Hope this gets the ball rolling... and a
for someone to answer about that pesky milodon oil issue.
-Bill
