Oil pump pickup bolt tip

[beersngars]

Thought I would share this little tip that worked very well for me. I am in the middle of a cam swap, injectors, fuel system and flex fuel conversion. When I got to the removal of the oil pump, I tied a piece of fishing string to the bolt after backing it about half way out just in case it slipped out of my oily fingers. I think I got that tip here.

Now for the tip. BEFORE putting the oil pump back on, I put the bolt back up thru the flange on the pick up tube and wrapped a pipe cleaner around it about 2 times above the flange. This holds the bolt in there and is waaay easier than trying to fish it in with the pump in place. Now put the pump on and wiggle the tube in and start the bolt. once it's in a few turns, just pull on the pipe cleaner and it unwinds itself from the bolt. Just finish tightening it down. Worked great.

[lionssfan]

I'm in the middle of my build too. I ended up pulling the pan and removed the pickup tube. I actually pulled my pickup bolt out with the pan still installed orginally. I saw a guy do it on youtube and thought I would try it. I used wire and magnet to get the bolt out. but I bent my pickup tube slightly trying to pull the pump off with pan still installed. And so going back on it was crazy hard with the tube slightly bent getting things lined up and trying not to pinch the o-ring. So to make sure everything was ok. At that point I dropped the front of the pan and still had trouble. so I bought a new pickup tube and that way made sure everything went back together ok. I also bought the melling oil pump and shimmed the inner and outer routers assembly. I did more work then I wanted to but for piece of mind it was worth it.