A while back I had developed an oil leak in the corner of my oil pan and a few weeks later I had to remove and break down the motor (unrelated problem to the leaking oil) so I was then able to look at the inside of the pan. It was obvious the oil pump did this, what I don't know is how to prevent this.

The motor was assembled by an engine builder here in town and he installed a high volume Melling oil pump. I wasn't able to find anything on line that would indicate this is a taller pump than stock (also using the stock oil pan).

The picture is the inside of the pan, looking at what would be the front, driver's side corner of the pan if it was installed on the motor.

Thoughts here? How to prevent this? Is there a specific pump I should be using or a thicker pan gasket (was using cork before)?

 

Well how "built" is this motor? Running an HV pump on a Ford almost always ends up with the cam eating the distributor gear for lunch, because the stock gear was never meant to take the additional load of a HV oil pump.

So I would just get a Motorcraft or other GOOD (and yes Melling is good) factory-spec pump and run that.

Also... it's hard to tell from your pic because I'm on my phone, but that hole looks like something got punched INTO the pan.

 

Yeah those HV oil pumps don't fit without something getting modified, sometimes a little hammering on the oilpan will do it, sometimes the pump body has to be machined down because the pan isn't even close to contacting the block before hitting the pump. With a fresh rebuild there is really no need for a HV pump,, it just puts more load on the drive shaft and gears, so my suggestion is replace it with a regular volume pump and in your case a new oilpan.

 

Looks to me like something punched a hole in it

 

If that edge of the pickup tube end was sharp, and preventing the oil pan from fully seating, then when the builder snugged up the oil pan bolts, it may have punched that hole all nice and neat-like.

Jason

 

Looks familiar, put hv oil pump in 351 I put in my '90 when I tightened pan heard a pop, found same thing you have. Knocked out that corner and welded up pan, had to do some bumping to get a good fit. If pan doesn't sit flat on block rail, you need to bump it out some more.

 

Would I be safe in getting one from an auto parts store? I'm not sure if they carry any brand I'd want to use but I'd like to take the old one in to compare mine to a new one.

 

It's the truck in my signature of the OP. If you use the mobile site, it usually won't show the signature unless you use the non-mobile/regular site.

 

Autozone has the OE melling one for 29.99 not sure anywhere else you can go since i ha e local shops here too that are a lot more pricey, and dont have a website to search

 

The standard volume melling is about 0.25 shorter than the high volume melling pump, definitely a difference.

 

On a bigger screen, it is definitely punched from the inside. And there is another slight dimple from another bolt head.