Not the dip stick tube but rather the dip stick ITSELF. If i remeber rite i had to cut off only 1/2 inch (not 1-1/2) from the STICK only. HOWEVER, that also needs to be done with the PACKARD FACTORY STOCK pump as well.

Some confusion appears to have arisen from the comment that someone did not have to shave or rework the oil pan.

When I purchased my pump, I was also advised that:

Quote:
Perhaps no changes have been made WRT to pan interference, but grinding of the pump body may simply not be needed in every case.

Not to drift off-subject, but I turned to the aftermarket, today, for a high-volume pump for a Chevy 4.3L V6. Sealed Power was their supplier, but while the part number on the box was of their own convention, the pump body had a casting number that appeared to follow the same general format as Melling's high-vloume pump for the Olds V8 - that is M...HV.

As such, I suspect that Melling manufacturers and sell their pumps under their own label, but also wholesales them to other suppliers for resale under their own brand names.

However, anyone installing this conversion should compare the pump they acquire (locally) to the image that Eric provided above to ensure they hav the right thing.

Randy. The M22FHV pump and 22FHVS screeen is correct. That is exactly what i am runing.
BE SURE to look at the BOTTOM PLATE of the pump. U should see the shaft turning in the bottom plate when u turn the shaft from the top.

My emphasis on refereing to this pump as an OLDS HEAVY DUTY pump is FOR clarity. Simply refering to it as a "Melling pump" means nothing other than it is something that Melling produced.

I'm kinda waiting to install the Olds pump when I rebuild the 374, since I plan on using Craig's full flow conversion idea, utilizing the original oil filter placed on the rear passenger side head.

Keith, I didn't understand your original question. The conversion says to buy a Melling M22FHV pump and 22FHVS screen oil pickup. I did that, so why are you questioning whether I bought the proper pump? I may install it in the Caribbean after I plastigauge the bearings. That's why I initially asked for comments on this pump. I didn't want this thread to wander off discussing some other pump someone might have bought. Is anyone else running this conversion and do you have an opinion to express?

i found the 55-56 x-ref at AACA and floated it to the top.

If I remember right, I think it was either you, Brian, or Craig who suggested someone make a backup of the AACA '55-'56 X-Ref pages. I hope someone took the time to do it.

I suspect the links used in the single post in that pinned thread point to other past threads and are now broken due to some sort of reformatting of URLs as part of the upgrade.

This happened with a previous forum upgrade over there, and I did go back then and edit any URLs in every one of my posts to fix that. However, I'll not do that again. I don't have time to clean up the messes that keep getting made, and the new FAQ sez posts may only be edited for 360 minutes after they have been made.

Worse yet, I don't see any means to perform a Forum Search(of archived threads).

I pretty much gave up on that site months ago and only make an occassional post there anymore. Seems like "the powers that be" over there are only concerned with the discusssion of the moment and see no value in referencing ground that has already been covered.

Good thing we have this great site. I believe BigKev duplicated most of the Xref content here some time ago.

Back in 1991, when I first went to look at the Caribbean Hardtop that I would ultimately come back to purchase months later, the owner made it a point advise that he had the vinyl top replaced many years earlier. That work seemed obvious to me then, though some of my reasons have now been proven to the contrary.

It struck me odd, back then, when the owner went on to say that the material was not exactly the same as original, but as close as he could find. You see, I was expecting a pinpoint grain like the Hypalon convertible top materials of the day and what I had seen on a Hardtop that I had encountered way back in the mid-1970s. While I'd heard of a leather-grained convertible top cover for Caribbeans, I thought that was some option.

Now, looking at the attachment that Joel was kind enough to supply, I can see now that the old fella wasn't feeding me a line.

Attached below is a pic of the material currently on my Caribbean Hardtop. While the pattern bears some resemblence to a portion of Joel's swatch, the original the grain has a much more natural look to it. Though the Hypalon proved to be problematic in this application, the grain pattern was clearly "top shelf".

More on this story tomorrow.

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