G'Day, Darrel!
The oil pump upgrade is one of several projects I'm hoping to get back into motion soon. I have the spacer fabricated to extend the depth of the housing sufficiently to accommodate the longer V8 gears. Now it's just a matter of fabricating alignment dowels to keep the spacer, the main housing, and the cover plate running true to each other. The longer pump gears should deliver about 20% more volume if everything works out as planned. That just might breathe a little more life into some of these old engines with extra clearance around the cam bearings, main bearings, etc. As an added advantage, the spray nozzles might squirt a little more oil into the rod dippers as they spin into position at cruise speed.
I have a friend who lives in Auckland. He's a deck hand on an offshore sport fishing boat, and a retired police officer. He also grows orchids and sells them on the international market. He has invited me to visit sometime soon, and assemble a spare engine for a 1925 Dodge truck his family once used for delivering wines they produced. The truck is in excellent unrestored condition, and is used in parades and other special events. That should be quite an adventure if I can work out all the details!
Jerry
