The V8 Owners Forum -

Another Serp question! I was gonna continue on from my other serp front end question but i've never found any info on this anywhere so i thought it could be worthy of its own thread as i'm sure others have wondered too.

The question is can the serpentine oil pump be taken apart for cleaning and inspection etc? I know individual parts can't be replaced but if if you wanted to just take it apart is this possible/advisable?

I can imagine though that the cross head screws holding the rear facing cover on are made of chocolate!

What do you reckon?

I have not done this myself as my front cover is brand new but the overhaul manual does describe how to remove and check tolerances. It does say that it if is out of tolerance that you cannot replace the individual components, you would have to buy a new cover, sounds a little unreasonable!

I think you have to make a mark across the gears as you have to assemble in the same place.

I am at work and I might have missed something from memory, others will probably be along.

Ah excellent! I'll rip it apart then and start inspecting! Thankyou for the tip to mark the rotors, i no doubt would of forgotten that one!

I have always gone along the lines of if it has been put together it can be taken apart.

Just to update, yes its take apart-able.

Theres two gears, one a ring with gear teeth on the insde and a smaller normal gear the's attached to the crank. They sort of work like a rotary engine if you see what i mean. You can remove the inner gear form the outer ring just enure you put them back facing the same way.

Mine was pretty damn good inside despite an approx 100k covered. There
was a couple of scratches on some teeth but nothing to worry about.

One thing that surprised me though was that i was under the assumption that this style of pump was uber good leading me to another assumption that was the cranks bearings should be in fantastic condition well, i later went on to buy the engine it came form and the bearings were all down to the copper. They had worn well, that being no picking up or scraches or other nastiesjust wear. All the bearings were very smooth but if anyones considering going he serp route for the oil pump alone then knowing what i know now i wouldn't bother unless of course you're changing to a serp setup for one of its other many benefits or its size (that enigne its more compact than an sd1 front end).

epicyclic????

ian.stewart wrote:epicyclic????

Just for those who wonder what that means (like me)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicyclic_gearing

Edited to say I can think of another reason to use the interim style pump:
taking away the strain of the dizzy drive gear. I had a dizzy drive gear fail on me during a trackday. Not a nice experience.
And the oil pick up (self-prime) should be a lot better than on the old style pump.

pitsnow wrote:

ian.stewart wrote:epicyclic????

Just for those who wonder what that means (like me)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicyclic_gearing

Edited to say I can think of another reason to use the interim style pump:
taking away the strain of the dizzy drive gear. I had a dizzy drive gear fail on me during a trackday. Not a nice experience.
And the oil pick up (self-prime) should be a lot better than on the old style pump.

Sorry thats the Engineer in me assuming everybody knows what Epiclyic means

Just in case anyone wants one, V8 Developments are selling replacement serp oil pump gears.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0069222581

Expensive, but cheaper than a new cover.

Me - I'm stuck with my short nose crank

Mike


ps Happy New Year.