It's possible to make a spacer that fits between the pump body and the cover, and installing V8 gears from a Melling M-55 oil pump in the 216 or 235 housing, but there are also other modifications to be made. The pivot shaft for the driven gear is longer, and larger diameter, so a new one needs to be made and pressed into the original housing. Then a different shaft needs to be made for the gear the distributor shaft drives, and pinned into place so it doesn't break loose from the gear under load. Doing it that way was my first attempt, and when I saw how much work was involved, it was simpler and less risky to adapt an oil pump that somebody else had engineered and tested instead of performing heart surgery on a 70 year old original pump.
The spacer plate idea isn't new- - - -a kit to do the V8 gear swap to a Corvair pump used to be available.
Jerry
