Well, the last installment of the Spitfire race weekend from hell
left me with a car with a sheared oil pump drive gear. Last weekend I got a new
gear and yanked the old one out only to find that the oil pump had seized up.
Last night, after working my shift in the Student Auto Shop @ RPI,
I tossed the Spit up on the lift and dropped the oil pan to replace teh oil pump
with the new one from TRF. Now the pump I had in my hand didn't look anything
like
the pump from my spare engine (which was known to be trash), but
who was to know what was going to be in the car. Details available on request.
Anyway, upon removal, the reason for the seizure was apparent. A chip
had been taken out of the pump body casting and wedged itself into the pump
mechanism in a most spectacular fasion. A quick kludge of the oil pan baffle
allowed the use of the later oil pump, and 2.5 hours later, the car started
right
up, giving 70psi of oil pressure at 2k rpm. Not spectacular, but good enough
for
this particular engine/application...
Tonight we go over and mount up the Yoko's and get ready for the
weekend.
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