Oil pumps

Pete

Pete

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Anybody see the TV show on dyno testing oil pumps last night?
Pretty much laid to rest the old wives tale about high volume pumps sapping extra power, washing out bearings, blowing seals etc etc.

The pumps tested were a stock one, a high pressure Melling, a high volume Melling and an aftermarket Milodon billet one.
All pumps were tested under the same conditions on a wet sump Mopar engine.
 
I'll bet it was "Engine Masters" on the Motor Trend channel.

They do all kinds of comparative dyno runs such as this.
 
I'm not saying tv shows do things on sponsor money and make content based on that.


Beats putting heavy oil in your car to increase numbers.


Your basic flathead will run fine with just 10lbs hot. But flatheads are a low pressure oil system. Just off a gravity system till the B motor. I don't want to rewrite history here.


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I worked in the info world for a decade in my early days. The thought was always if you see something advertised for a long period. It means it works. Media buys are expensive and they only buy more media if the items sales are high and returns are low. ...
 
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I've not seen the video, but based on common sense and experience with all kinds of contraptions from shallow well pumps to home made hydraulic wood splitters you can not convince me that high volume or high pressure pumps do not take more power to run. Its basic physics, and not required for our old low RPM motors. Going racing? Thats another story. Pete, and Ronnie, and others that race may correct me, But me being only a racing fan have always read the high RPM race motors run a slightly looser clearance on the crank and rod bearings than we would want on a cruiser motor so the high volume / pressure pump would be the choice for that application...but not for us mere mortals.
 
Ya but cas, if you aren't cruising a blower flathead or a flathead with more then 1 carburetor you are not a flathead guy or know anything about it.
 
Tinker, you are correct, I know nothing about blowers and multi carbs. Had some hotrod chevys in the 80's, and even then I learned that big horsepower costs big money. Broken parts, big insurance, police tickets, all done with that. I drive my cars a lot. Under the new Marxist regime I may have to get out of retirement and get a job so I can continue my daily sunset cruise in the country , much less buy blowers and piles of carburetors.
 
Well I'm not going to touch that last part. The world is hurting, but we can cruise a flathead sometimes. It's a global issue. Glad to not live in sri lanka and other areas. (we are oing to see a lot of fallout around) Hey one good thing here is the dollar is stronger then ever. Euro is 1:1 now and the rupee is 80:1.

Not to make lite... but the job market is strong, so
 
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As to "new" Mellings oil pumps, my experience was that the new one made less oil pressuree than the old stock Ford did on a fresh rebuilt 8BA.
 
mfirth said:
As to "new" Mellings oil pumps, my experience was that the new one made less oil pressuree than the old stock Ford did on a fresh rebuilt 8BA.
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After reading about so many issues with the Mellings' pumps, I decided to rebuild mine. Maybe I was lucky, but between two old pumps, I managed to make one. The old stuff for the most part is built much better than most of today's stuff. The fact that many of these items are approaching 75-100 years old speaks for itself.
 
You guys forget, all the pumps tested were regulated (bypassed) to the same (or very close) pressure out. You can not have a valid test otherwise.
Hp in will be the same with a large pump for same pressure out MINUS frictional losses.
Frictional losses amount to both mechanical and flow.
 
Ziggster said:
After reading about so many issues with the Mellings' pumps, I decided to rebuild mine. Maybe I was lucky, but between two old pumps, I managed to make one. The old stuff for the most part is built much better than most of today's stuff. The fact that many of these items are approaching 75-100 years old speaks for itself.
Click to expand...

Can Melling pumps be a problem? How would you check a used M19 before using?
 
tubman said:
I'll bet it was "Engine Masters" on the Motor Trend channel.

They do all kinds of comparative dyno runs such as this.
Click to expand...

I stumbled upon this while channel surfing and caught the tail end so I'm not postive it's the show Pete is referring to, but it was "Engine Masters" season 3, episode 3. It was interesting.
 
During a test run of one of our race cars we experienced a failure of an oil pumps pressure regulator the pump is a Melling M-15. Data showed the pressure spiked to 225 PSI pump has not been removed yet to determine what caused the failure.
On my pump dyno testing the M-21, M-15 and M-19 I will say is a messy affair.
Ronnieroadster
 
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