As some of you may recall, I was having an over-pressurization problem with my 12.5:1 454. Last sunday I made 8 passes, and finally pushed the 1978 Malibu into the 10's. I got home and pulled the hood and found the whole engine compartment had oil all over it. It was a fine mist of oil which was coming from the breathers and from the oil pan gasket. I desided I would try a vacuum pump, and see if that wouldn't cure some of the problem.

I got the GZ Motorsports VP103 Pro Pump in today, along with my fabricated aluminum valve covers. I got the pump installed. Talk about being scared, I had to drill a 7/8" hole for the intake side of the pump, and a 1 1/8" hole for the pressure valve. It's no fun drilling on a brand spanking new set of nice valve covers! Anyway, the install went pretty smoothly, and the kit had almost everything I needed to do the install. No complaints on my end (yet). I won't have a chance to run the car until weekend after this one, as we're starting to get really busy at work.

http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu168-1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu169-1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu170-1.jpg

Dang I remember when my valve covers looked that nice and purdy! LOL, Looks good Sean... Did you put a vacuum gauge on it yet? Might be a good idea, I plumbed mine into the intake in front of the distributor - 1 less hose to have to hook and unhook on the valve covers.

You will not be happy at all with the pump or the valve covers. They will attract way to much attention to your engine! I suggest you remove them and send them to me right now before it's too late! I'll even pay you for your time drilling the holes, and send you oil pan gaskets and new breathers for your other valve covers!:cool:

My son put a GZMS sportsman pump on his 598 along with the biggest pulley to slow the pump down as much as possible. He said he has to turn the relief almost all the way open in order to limit the vacuum to the desired 12", (don't exceed 15"). You might want to find some way to monitor how much vacuum you are getting so as not to have problems with too much vacuum. Too much will cause valve guides and wrist pins to be oil starved and gall or seize. Also watch the catch can for overfilling. My son's engine has very little blowby so you may be O.K. on your choice of the pro pump.

Hey Harold you sure Brian didn't put O-rings in the motor instead of piston rings??? LOL. That's the tightest 598 I've ever seen!

Hey Harold you sure Brian didn't put O-rings in the motor instead of piston rings??? LOL. That's the tightest 598 I've ever seen! He's the only person i know that has completely disassembled a Steve Schmidt motor and checked everything prior to running it. It was a good thing he did as some of the parts were not "as advertised" but nothing that affected anything except the main bearing clearances and the wrong rings for nitrous. He ordered a set of "hellfires" and changed them out. These rings, even in the backcut, low drag type are excellent. He also opened the gaps up an extra .004 on those top rings for a bigger nitrous hit. This motor makes big power and has about a hundred horses more than the 540 that it replaced. I'm trying to get him to run it without nitrous to see what it's really got.

Dang I remember when my valve covers looked that nice and purdy! LOL, Looks good Sean... Did you put a vacuum gauge on it yet? Might be a good idea, I plumbed mine into the intake in front of the distributor - 1 less hose to have to hook and unhook on the valve covers.

Yeah, my buddy said I should scotch brite the covers now, so they look like sh!t all the time. :D I haven't plumbed a vacuum gauge in yet. The Vic Jr.'s don't have a vacuum port on the intake, and I don't feel like pulling it just to do that. I'll probably just do a T fitting on the intake hose side, from the valve cover to the intake port on the pump. Any ideas?

You will not be happy at all with the pump or the valve covers. They will attract way to much attention to your engine! I suggest you remove them and send them to me right now before it's too late! I'll even pay you for your time drilling the holes, and send you oil pan gaskets and new breathers for your other valve covers!:cool:

Sounds great, but my hourly wage is $1000. :)

My son put a GZMS sportsman pump on his 598 along with the biggest pulley to slow the pump down as much as possible. He said he has to turn the relief almost all the way open in order to limit the vacuum to the desired 12", (don't exceed 15"). You might want to find some way to monitor how much vacuum you are getting so as not to have problems with too much vacuum. Too much will cause valve guides and wrist pins to be oil starved and gall or seize. Also watch the catch can for overfilling. My son's engine has very little blowby so you may be O.K. on your choice of the pro pump.

Will do. Just trying to work out the details of where I'm going to plumb the vacuum line to a gauge. Any ideas?

I've got my vacuum gauge plumbed into the fuel pump block-off plate.
I also use a Stef's oil separator on the vacuum side of the pump.

I've got my vacuum gauge plumbed into the fuel pump block-off plate.
I also use a Stef's oil separator on the vacuum side of the pump.

That's a good idea on the vacuum port. I have a breather tank on the outlet side, but you're talking about running an oil separator on the inlet side (from valve cover to pump)?

Harold, he was WISE to take that Schmidt motor apart. A very good pal of mine from here in town went to work for Schmidt a couple years ago, and told me some of the horror stories about the motors that left there. Parts not installed as claimed, poor assembly details, etc. He said one person called in repeatedly asking why his motor was not ready, and Steve told him it would be done on 'x' date. So, the guy showed up there and you guessed it... motor was NOT done. My pal said he camped there in the lot until it was ready to go. He said he's see some high-buck motors leave there with crappy old washers used as shims for the Jesel stands/etc. I'd be ****ed if I paid top-dollar and found something like that in my motor. Oh... remember when Schmidt had the Mopar Hemi Pro Stock motor for sale in National Dragster a couple years ago? Seems that he was pretty generous in his power/torque claims on that piece according to my friend, lol. I'd look to Reher-Morrison, or Sunset Racecraft possibly if I were to buy a BBC race motor.


ps... to stay on topic... be careful of the GZ pump... don't overtighten the AN fittings as the castings are very thin there, seeing how they were not designed originally for use as a vacuum pump with fittings added into the pump body like that.

Sean,

Looks good.

Be aware that you may pick up extra oil in the puke tank from your inlet location in the valve cover. Some racers have reported getting too much oil when braking with that inlet location.

Have you plumbed in a vacuum gauge somewhere you can watch vacuum while driving?

I drilled & tapped a 1/8" NPT hole on the back the intake valley floor near the distributor out back. You can plumb the gauge in the intake valley pan, or even a valve cover. I chose the intake so I wouldn't have to disconnect the vacuum line to take the valve covers off to adjust the valves.

That's a good idea on the vacuum port. I have a breather tank on the outlet side, but you're talking about running an oil separator on the inlet side (from valve cover to pump)?

We were having a problem with the puke tank overflowing while we were out on the road running hard. I had a valve under the dash to empty it back to the sump, but in all the excitement we'd sometimes forget. I bought a Stef's separator that takes care of the problem by being on the suction side of the pump and draining back through the fitting on the block-off plate. I also invented the little recirc valve that Greg offers now that keeps a small amount of oil recirculating through the pump.

Thanks for the info, guys. I'll probably just plumb a line to the valve cover for now. Greg mentioned I may have a problem with the inlet location of the valve cover. I'll have to keep an eye on that.