Oil Pump Tester

brought to you by:  Dave Williams
This page: www.bacomatic.org/~dw/tool/oiltest/oiltest.htm
Main page: http://www.bacomatic.org/~dw/index.htm
Last Updated: 25 Aug 2008

Author: Dave Williams; dlwilliams=aristotle=net


I had a long block come in for forensic analysis. It was my opinion that the engine had been started with no oil and run until it seized, but the vendor wanted me to check the oil pump for completeness.

I could have cobbled something up using the block and oil pan, but I decided to get a little fancier. I made a simple tester that I can use on many oil pumps.


Basically, it's a piece of thickwall 1" tubing with a tapped main mounting plate welded on at an angle. An adapter plate mounts to the main plate, and the oil pump bolts to the adapter. This lets me mount most non-crank- driven pumps by making a new adapter plate.

This particular one is for the Ford 60 degree Cologne V6.


The pump, its pickup, and drive rod. I eyeballed the angle on the main plate. Not all pumps use the same mounting angle. Since I made the tester to clamp into my big bench vise, I just angle it needed until the pickup is level and 1/2" above the bottom of the pan. The pan is a $1 flea market item, an enameled refrigerator bin, but any open container larger enough to hold the pump and pickup will do.

1/4 NPT pipe tee has a 100 PSI pressure gauge on one side and a loop of copper tubing on the other. There's a .100" restrictor in the tee so some oil fill flow through the tube. The loops of tubing are so it can be bent around to use different pans without getting a kink.

Since this was a pump that had already had quite a bit of flak through it, I couldn't see any reason I use two or three quarts of fresh oil, considering what oil costs nowadays. I had some used oil on hand for my shop heater, so I poured it into the pan. It's nasty and black, but it was already filtered for the heater, so it would work fine.

My old Makita drill running the pump. You can't read the gauge due to the flash, but it's sitting right on 60 PSI. Nothing wrong with the pump.


Next time I need to check a pump, all I need to do is whip up a simple adapter plate, screw the tee fitting in, and bolt it to the stick.

The design may look at little odd, but it would be hard to beat it for flexibility!