oil pump pickup clearance

What is the max? Mine is 3/8" thanks Craig

 

When I was doing mine a bit ago, Dan Olson's shop said 1/2" was fine. When I said I thought that was too much, he said that you need to check all area's of the pickup. Usually, some areas are less than others and he said with using 1/2", this would give adequate clearance in all areas without cavitating if you had a low spot.

Depending on how thick the oil is, looks like 3/8" is about right but you need to clay the whole pickup with the pan and correct gasket to make sure that you have 3/8" all the way across the pickup.

I'm using a mix of 50 and 70 Wt Brad Penn to give 60 Wt with an additional two Qts of Lucas Oil Stabilizer. I wanted to get the pickup down as low as possible to have the most oil available without getting it too close to the pan.

 

we have been using micky williams pans and i think its 1/4 from bottom...i might add we use dan's stuff also..dave

 

Ya might want to take into consideration, sucking the bottom of the pan to the pump, have 4 legs touching the pan from the pump pickup.

 

Jeff Johnston told me 1/4-3/8 and more will work, its just that you'll have to have more oil in the pan, otherwise it will run out sooner. This is on a wet sump BBC.