360 Oil Pump Bypass?

I took Tim's advise and replaced rear main seal (rear main bearing looked pretty good...no wear patterns and no copper showing) and have a new oil pump gear set, midplate and high volume water pump ordered. Also found a crack in my "free" Offy intake so ordered an Edelbrock Performer.
On one of my internet searches I came across a post that said some new oil pump housings don't have a bypass because all new oil filters have one built in. Is this bogus?
Also the rubber on the harmonic balancer appears pretty hard. A piece or two of the exterior portions have broken off. Any cause for concern? This minor "refresh" is getting pretty expensive.

 

I purchased a new Timing cover/pump and the bypass is not active. Most if not all filters these days come with a bypass valve. http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilterstudy.html

 

That's what I heard. I'm rebuilding my oil pump, assuming the housing is okay. Do you think there's any value in plugging the bypass?

 

Dave,

You should check out Bulltear.com

They have an E store full of AMC goodies

High5

 

High5,
Checking out Bulltear may have been a mistake. They have too many goodies for an AMC V8! But thanks for the tip.
Dave

 

I'm skeptical on ditching the pumps bypass system.

Prolly 4 years ago, I dented the bypass housing on my pump with my diff. Wasn't a problem all day, as the oil was warm. Next morning (cold oil) I started the motor and blew the filter up.

It was a Napa silver filter. Supposedly good quality, anyone know if they have or had a bypass in them?

 

The dented bypass housing was a common problem in '72 and '73. Jeep's warranty fix for this was to add a 3/8" thick metal shim under the passenger side bumpstop.

Jeep also sold a kit to remotely mount the oil filter that solved the problem. These were parts from a RHD Matador (or Hornet?), designed because the RHD steering gear interfered with the standard oil filter and pump cover. I installed one of these kits on my '73 - also made changing the oil filter a lot easier.

I believe that the later covers relocate the bypass piston to avoid the interference problem.

Never heard of the bypass being eliminated, though the Napa filter is a Wix and reputed to be of good quality.

 

Supposedly,

That bypass is the root of many oiling problems in the AMC V8's. The bulltear site has a lot of info on this. Apparently all filters now have a bypass in them so it should, I said should, not be a problem. I think I am going to eliminate it once I get to that point. Also, you should check to make sure that your timing gears have the relief cut in the side. Check bulltear for this as well. I guess sometimes that groove gets filled or blocked by accident and then the cam gears and dizzy gears don't get enough oil. There is also a deal to get more oil to the back of the block through the valley pan. I would do this, but I'm not machining my block and don't want little pieces of metal floating around in there after. I have learned a lot just from browsing that website and I only want to do this once.

Trying to prevent oil pressure problems is easier than trying to fix them once the engine is in. At least that's how I'm looking at it.

Yeah Dave, they do have a lot of goodies on that site. I have heard one of the best things to buy is the matched set of dizzy/cam gears. Prevents your cam from eating your dizzy gears. There's a guy on 4wd.com that had this problem a number of times. I'm also going to do this before installing. And, lastly, I'm doing the HEI again. It's just too simple and effective not to.

High5