[Healeys] [Fwd: Oil Pump]

[E.A. Driver]

Hello Richard
Very interesting and most informative. The information you provided here should of
  appeared in your initial post rather than the form it appeared.

Kind regards
Ed


richard mayor wrote:

> Dear Mr. Driver: You have missed the point. I made it clear at the 
> outset that I have been racing my Healey 3000 for over 25 years. I shift 
> at 6000 RPM. I have personally lost two engines because of the rotor 
> style oil pump. The exact same thing happened in both cases. The force 
> required to drive the rotor pump at high RPMs will grind the teeth off 
> of the drving spindle and the cam. The cam will be pushed forward and 
> grind its way into the thrust plate - over 1/8th inch. Eventually the 
> teeth are half gone and no longer able to mesh enought to drive the 
> pump. The resultant metal in the oil has now ruined the bearings. I am 
> not the first racer to have encountered this problem. I know of many 
> others who have lost engines because they also believed that the rotor 
> pump was the trick thing for racing, especially when a well known Brit 
> claims that the rotor pump is safe to 6000 RPM. Some years ago Jeff Jonk 
> wrote a well researched article about these pumps. He even made a test 
> bed. This article appeared in Healey Marque (might have been Chatter at 
> the time). Unfortunately, this article appeared too late for me to 
> benefit as I had already discovered his findings  - the hard way!  As a 
> research scientist I believe you will appreciate the methodology in the 
> Jeff Jonk article. In bringing this issue to the members of the list, it 
> was my intent to educate and protect the listers from using the 100-6 
> oil pump in engines built for serious use.  Sincerely, Richard Mayor, 
> Portland, Oregon  - 1959 BN7 Vintage Racer #466 (holder of the track 
> record for an Austin-Healey at Road America - established 2002)