A few months ago I bought a brand new oil pump for a fresh race motor for the
2011 season. It turned out to be a "County" oil pump. The bag contained a
flyer that said something like "do not open this oil pump - the gears have
been carefully matched - do not disturb".
Last week as I was assembling a fresh race motor for my 2011 racing season, I
opened the oil pump to pack it with petroleum jelly (so it would prime faster
on initial start-up) and I discovered two things. First, the casting was so
bad that there was a big glob of aluminum sitting in the bottom of the cavity
just before the gears ,where oil should be flowing freely. Then I removed the
gears and saw that the inside of the housing. On one side, the housing was so
bad that it was worse than an oil pump housing that had gone through a
catastrophic engine failure. There were huge voids in the housing wall that
should have been smooth as glass. This was worse than an old worn out -
severely damaged - oil pump!!! And sold as brand new.
Some moron (in China or India?) had assembled this piece of crap, perhaps
knowing, or not, that it was hugely defective, put it into a plastic zip lock
bag and then added that warning flyer to not open up this pump. Most engine
builders do not open up oil pumps when they do a rebuild. Sadly, in today's
world this is what we get - "County" - for our Healeys.
BTW, I sell ACL engine bearings for 6 cylinder Healeys. but then, so does
County.
Richard Mayor
BN7L-466 Vintage Racer
Portland, Oregon
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