Gearing up for a Starion swap and was wondering if anyone has modified the pick-up tube to use the starion oil pump? I haven't taken the oil pan off the Monty yet to get a look at it but was hoping I could cut and weld the two tubes together to get where it needs to go down in the baffle and still use the two bolts for the Starion pump. Did some searching but only found that everyone uses the monty pump and pick-up tube to clear the pan, why? Is it not worth the extra flow to do all the cutting/ welding, or will this just not be able to clear the pan w/ the front axle, or is the possiblity of rusting welds and getting metal to the pump holding anyone back?

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

Hey the more the merrier as they say. Well here is where my project sits as of now, my Starion has an original 56K miles on it and the drivetrain.
I replaced the original motor with a forged rebuilt block to use a t3/t4 and multiport which is probably unnecessary but like you said a little insurance can't hurt, and the old motor has perfect oil pressure and compression across all cylinders.
So I picked up a 87 Monty and decided I'm going to put in this block. Well I don't have a spare wiring harness or really want to use any of the stock fuel system (leaving the harness in the car and keeping the TBI etc. incase I ever want to go back to stock)so I decided to use a magna intake with some eclipse injectors and TD06 17c, use it as a daily driver, basically a reliable budget mpi which is probably easier than the stock ecu/ wiring swap.
So I'd rather not tear into the block knowing everything is in great shape, can still see the crosshatch, and really don't want to use the Monty pick-up/ pump and figured I'd get creative. I'm still a few weeks from pulling the old motor but will see what I can come up with when I do.
Thanks for the info.

Curious what type of forged pistons you ahve and what you have run for clearance?

I am setting up a spare short block with wiseco's.

Any issues with piston slap?

Thanks,

Kevin

I'm also using Wiseco's, 20 overbore. I'll have to dig up the specs on the motor for ya and find the clearances, but I haven't yet fired it up, should be in the next few weeks, currently have a problem with my MSD setup. Damn I have to many projects and not enough time.

Can you use the Starion pump, then block off the oilpump hole with a freeze plug and use the raider rear sump pick up tube? I already have a starion pump in my engine and would prefer to use it if this altration would work. Very impressive how you modified and detailed your oil system by the way <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />I will do as much of the same as I can......

You need to drill out the back plate of the starion pump to match the passage in the block. I did this on my first swap and it worked fine.

I tapped the Starion pickup tube hole with a large pipe tape and threaded a plug in it.

Kevin

I've used the Starion pump in the monty pan. Starion pan won't fit without hammer adjustment at the front diff chunk, at least in the D-50. Motor to axle relationship is slightly different in the truck than the Monty, so the interference might go away, or be elsewhere on the pan. I extended the starion pickup tube by about 1" (measure! don't trust my memory) to reach the bottom of the pan, but it was a pita. Not worth the effort, IMHO.

Has anybody used 3.0 pistons in the 2.6? Isn't the bore size the same? I'm currently looking for somebody to make me a set of Mahle pistons, so I can run forged AND tight clearances. I hate piston slap, and the loss of ring seal that you get with std. forged piston tolerances. I may end up taking a risk with hyper-u's, as I don't plan to run over 15psi.

The monty is a whee with any turbo....

Great stuff here guys, I'll figure it out in a few weeks. Eddy, I though I saw a few guys running the Mahle pistons on starquestclub, you might want to ask about it over there.