As a lot of you know I'm putting together a 383. It's all assembled and was ready to fire up last weekend. Well as I started priming the oil pump it had some clunkiness to it, which I have felt in some pumps before, and goes away after priming it. Well this time not the case it was louder than the 1/2" drill I was priming it with, it had 65psi but was noisy as heck.

This is the question, this pump is the Melling select 10552 standard pressure high volume pump (which I have a new replacement in hand). I am now wondering if I should go with the 10555 high pressure high volume pump while I'm here.
The clearances on the mains are .0027 and rods .0025.

Now would be the time to change it.

What are your thoughts.

I'd change it. If you're having issues during priming it will always be in the back of your mind. It's easier to change now than after you assemble everything and install the motor.

Bill, I'm definitely changing it, and the new one is smooth as it should be, but am wondering if I should go high volume.

I would go with a high volume Schumann pump.

http://www.schumannsdynamicperforman...gh-volume.html

Having a ball bypass and bypassing oil directly back into the sump(not via the pickup tube like melling/OE) has many benefits regarding lubrication.

i'd go high volume especially if it's going to be run at high RPM a lot. Are you putting in a high cap oil pan?

Engine is done, high capacity canton pan etc, so I don't want to change too much.

Very nice. Definitely use the high cap pump.

Also, utilizing this design you don't have all of the added stress put on the distributor gear that high volume pumps produce. It's more of an issue in small blocks also. If you can compare a Schumann vs Melling, you would pick Schumann every time. People often times don't because one, they aren't aware they exist, and two do not understand how the OEM style spur pumps work in the first place.

Borgie, I'll look at them, Thanks.

upload the pic to something like photobucket. you cant use the IMG tags and get a pic from your hard drive.