OK have done some research on this topic over last day and it seems that one method of installing an oil pickup tube into an oil pump employs the physics of temperature difference between the two mating points.
So was wondering if I place either of the two in an oven @ 200 degrees (which is what the typical operating temp of the engine is, at least according to temp gauge) and the other in the freezer for similar time periods, say half an hour, would there be some damage done to either piece that leave them inoperable? Should one not be heat and only cooled or vice versa? :anon:
- Put the pickup tube in the freezer the night before (it takes cold a while to work.)
- Turn the oven on to 400-450*F
- Strip the pump body, so it's just a casting
- Put the pump body in the oven for twenty minutes (give it time for a full heat soak)
- While that's going on, put down some variety of heat-insulating surface on the counter to work on (folded towel, couple of potholders, soldering heat mat, whatever.) Also, go get a lightweight soft hammer (brass, wood, lead -
not rubber! Even rawhide will work) that tips at a pound to a pound and a half.
- Remove the pickup tube from the freezer
- Remove the pump body from the oven
- Insert the pickup tube into the bore on the pump body, "encouraging" it along with the soft hammer. Make sure you get the pickup tube aligned - the bracket has one of the cover screws going through it to help retain it.
- Let it cool fully in free air, you can put a fan on it if you're in a hurry. It should be blood temperature or lower (call it 100*F) before you try to do anything else with it.
Since you have the cover off and the pump gutted, you can now put the rotors back in and pack the voids with grease or Vaseline, then put the cover back on (60-70 lb-in for the screws, no sealer on the gasket.) This will make it MUCH easier to prime later.
This is how I routinely do oil pumps - and have done for a number of years. The only real "improvement" would be if you have dry ice available, and you'd pack the pickup tube in dry ice for an hour or two instead of putting it in the freezer overnight (the dry ice will chill the part down faster - and will shrink it more - than a typical freezer. The wider you can get the temperature differential, the better.)
