I looked at using the Starion pump and thought about fabricating a tube and screen for the read sump on the Raider. It seemed like a hassle so I just used the trucks original pickup and pump.
I always had good oil pressure and never had any problems with that setup. The Starion pump and the truck pump use the same sized gears. As you know the Starion pump has a lower restriction pickup.
One thing I did do on my last motor is to mill, drill / ream out the two pickup passages in the block to have about 20% more area. I also chamfered the port to the pump, drilled out the passage to the filter, opened up the pipe on the oil cooler adaptor about and reamed out the main galley in the block slightly larger up to the #3 main bearing.
Is it needed? No but a little extra cant hurt, same with the pickup tube. The Starion tube is not a bad idea and it cant hurt.
One trick I used on the truck style pickup is to smooth the sharp edge in the block between the two drilled passages. I used a long strip of abrasive cloth from a belt sander threaded through the gallery to smooth it out a bit.
IMHO none of this is necessary, but it does not hurt and may give you a bit of extra flow especially when the oil is cold.
One thing I have found is if you keep the balance shafts use stock style bearings for them. Aftermarket bearings are grooved and act like a large oil leak and consume way too much volume. On the upper balance shaft the volume is so high that the oil may build up in the shaft housing, reducing what available in the sump.
The balance shafts work much better with the factory type bearings and will last forever as long as you have oil pressure.
The two best things I did in the last motor are using stock balance shaft bearings and a hardened crank. The stock starion crank is hardened and you can get the truck crank hardened as well.
To get better oil volume though the bearings a slight chamfer to the oil holes is all you need.
I get carried away with answers once in a while. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />
Kevin
