Oil pump pick modification

I'm building up a 2.5L and was working on the oil pick up tonight.

I thought about taking a ziz-wheel and just cutting the opening bigger in the pickup. But I'd read about where you could remove the bottom of the pickup and work on it without getting funk in the pickup and risk cutting the screen. So this is what I found when I pulled the bottom of the pickup out. Oh, and I'd rinsed this think out, or thought I had.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3474/...de157294a9.jpg

I think I'm going to take the bottom plate and drill 4 or 5 holes in it rather make the 1 hole bigger or leave the plate out. That way it still acts like a big screen and can filter out anything stupid gigantic that might somehow make it into the closed engine.

Consider that the bumps on the steel plate over the screen are there to prevent the pick up from sucking itself to the bottom of the pan and starving the engine of oil. If the pan happens to hit a rock or whatever, then the clearance between the pick up and pan might get a little tight.

This should do the trick

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3395/...e2ff6b99d5.jpg

Just leave it off, I've done this to mine and other Td's without issues. I have wicked oil pressure, yo, ;)

Heck I doubt the point of the screen, my Spirit was killed by particles small enough to easily pass through the screen, but big enough to stop the pump! I wish Mopar had gone the less efficient/more robust route and used a spur gear pump in place of the gerotor design. Anyone know if an alternate design was ever made?

Mike