GT350 oil pump and gears

I've been looking into billet oil pump gears for my GT350. I've installed some OPG on 5.0's and it's a easy straight foward job and can easily be done without dropping the oil pan because the pick up tube bolts on. But, on the GT350 5.2 the pick up is part of the pan and the pan must be dropped to remove the oil pump. I've called ford performance and like always they don't know and don't care to find out if the gears are the same as the 5.0 or not. I'm willing to buy a billet set of 5.0 opg's and a 5.2 oil pump and to inspect and measure them myself but it irks the hell out of me when ford performance doesn't know anything and doesn't see interest in finding out.
Over the winter I'm going to drop my front K member and this would be a great time to swap the opg's out, but I don't want to go through all the extra work of removing the oil pump if none of the parts interchange.

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-6675-M52
List price of $625.00 isn't bad and with my discount I can get it for $430.00
Besides the oil pump housing looking different then the 5.0 I'm sure the gears are the same.

According to mmr's website the gears are the same for both the 5.0 and 5.2

That is something I'd be interested in doing, but what a pain to do all that without any certainty they are interchangeable . I would be very interested to see what you find out.

You sir are a pioneer on all things GT350. I am nowhere near as adventurous and would like to thank you for the info provided to us owners.:first:

I am interested in this as well but wouldn't mess with it until after the warranty expires.

TDC said:

You sir are a pioneer on all things GT350. I am nowhere near as adventurous and would like to thank you for the info provided to us owners.:first:

I am interested in this as well but wouldn't mess with it until after the warranty expires.

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I would rather replace my own OPG now before a stock failed OPG and takes out my engine. You know, numbers matching lol.
In all seriousness, I can't believe ford didn't install billet opg's. They put all the R&D into the oil pan and windage tray and the rest of the oil system but kept the shitty cast opg's. Stupid if you ask me.
But my other question is. The ones that failed, are they due from the owner not allowing the oil to reach operating temps? At cold start up the oil psi is 100 psi. That's a lot of psi and stress on a cast gear at high RPM.

Back on the old pushrod fords you could twist a oil pump shaft. Until they made 3/8" round shafts. The shaft itself was the weak link. Today's oil pumps weak links are the gears themselves.

Because of these reports of opg failures I wait until at least 190c before spinning up the engine past 5k and avoid abrubt engine rpm changes as well

TDC said:

Because of these reports of opg failures I wait until at least 190c before spinning up the engine past 5k and avoid abrubt engine rpm changes as well

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Call me paranoid, but I don't go above 2500 until 190 deg, and I'm real light on the gas. That's typically 5 - 10 mins of warmup

Wow that is extremely conservative. Up here in the north this time of year I could drive 15-20 minutes before getting near 190 so there's no way I'm keeping it that low for that long. Most driving takes me to 3500-4000 rpm. I only go above that if I'm out to have some real fun.

I guess it will take much longer as the temps down here start to get cooler. It's been pretty consistent though, closer to the 5 min timeframe.

Scott, your efforts are appreciated. That is something that I would do in a preemptive swap even for the sake of matching numbers

Voodooo said:

Back on the old pushrod fords you could twist a oil pump shaft. Until they made 3/8" round shafts. The shaft itself was the weak link.

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BTDT. From the original engine in my '90 LX HO coupe.

Voodooo said:

I would rather replace my own OPG now before a stock failed OPG and takes out my engine. You know, numbers matching lol.
In all seriousness, I can't believe ford didn't install billet opg's. They put all the R&D into the oil pan and windage tray and the rest of the oil system but kept the shitty cast opg's. Stupid if you ask me.
But my other question is. The ones that failed, are they due from the owner not allowing the oil to reach operating temps? At cold start up the oil psi is 100 psi. That's a lot of psi and stress on a cast gear at high RPM.

Back on the old pushrod fords you could twist a oil pump shaft. Until they made 3/8" round shafts. The shaft itself was the weak link. Today's oil pumps weak links are the gears themselves.

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On my original engine (before suspected OPG failure), I would never accelerate hard or rev past 4500 until oil temperature was reported >=190F. My oil pump failed while accelerating, for the first time on that trip, while the oil temp was reported 192F.

I don't remember oil pressures on my first engine, but I've been watching it a lot closer with this new engine. On cold starts, I start driving within 10 seconds. I accelerate lightly until the oil is up to temp. For the first few minutes I don't rev past 3000, then I'll start reving up to 4000 until the oil is up to temp. I see 100~ PSI at idle after cold starting. During the first few minutes, my oil pressure is reported up near 125 PSI under acceleration. Once up to temp >190F, I see 100 PSI while cruising, unless I go into 6th gear then it'll drop down to 75~ PSI.

Voodooo said:

I would rather replace my own OPG now before a stock failed OPG and takes out my engine. You know, numbers matching lol.
In all seriousness, I can't believe ford didn't install billet opg's. They put all the R&D into the oil pan and windage tray and the rest of the oil system but kept the shitty cast opg's. Stupid if you ask me.
But my other question is. The ones that failed, are they due from the owner not allowing the oil to reach operating temps? At cold start up the oil psi is 100 psi. That's a lot of psi and stress on a cast gear at high RPM.

Back on the old pushrod fords you could twist a oil pump shaft. Until they made 3/8" round shafts. The shaft itself was the weak link. Today's oil pumps weak links are the gears themselves.

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I agree, Cast OPG on this engine seems extremely short sighted. I would expect the cost to Ford, for the better gear versus the cost of the cast would be much much less than your 400 dollar quote. So for giggles sake if the differential is 200 dollars, how many 22k engines will they warranty because of this? What is the result to the customer if 10-20 or more engines go pop for this within the first 36k? Even if Fords cost is 10k for the engine that buys a lot of billet gears.

My OPGs failed at temp, cruising at 40mph. Who's to say they weren't weakened at some point but I don't ever believe I went WOT before temps came up. I love the car but I'm shocked they didn't use billet OPGs. I was going to install them myself or have them install it and I was going to pay for it but decided against it when I was told if the gears failed for some reason again I'd be fronting the engine costs. Stock it is!

Interesting dilemma. Do you change to a more robust billet OPG, but take the warranty risk if something were to happen? Or do you stay stock but with a higher likelihood of failure?

I plan to drive the car hard, stay stock, and then re-evaluate once the warranty expires. It does seem like going to a billet OPG would be useful long-term. I did notice that Ford provides a billet OPG on their new Aluminator 5.2 crate engine, so I imagine that gear would be available as a standalone upgrade at some point.

-T

Trackaholic said:

Interesting dilemma. Do you change to a more robust billet OPG, but take the warranty risk if something were to happen? Or do you stay stock but with a higher likelihood of failure?

I plan to drive the car hard, stay stock, and then re-evaluate once the warranty expires. It does seem like going to a billet OPG would be useful long-term. I did notice that Ford provides a billet OPG on their new Aluminator 5.2 crate engine, so I imagine that gear would be available as a standalone upgrade at some point.

-T

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Yes, it is a pickle