Melling oil pumps are a waste of time and money.

[07navi]

People are always coming up with something and convincing everyone they need it, those cone shaped air filters by K & N are a good example. People buy stuff that actually screws up their vehicle it and lowers the resale value, and those VCT jammers are another example. Those aftermarket oil pumps are easy to drop in when you have the timing cover off the 5.4 and they know that. Oil pumps rarely go bad and the engine oil pressure is governed by the engine clearances anyway so why throw more pressure and volume at it? It's like washing your wheel with a fire hose...….overkill. Maybe for long distance high rpm racing with a tired engine or something like that but not needed in the 5.4.

 

[TobyU]

People are always coming up with something and convincing everyone they need it, those cone shaped air filters by K & N are a good example. People buy stuff that actually screws up their vehicle it and lowers the resale value, and those VCT jammers are another example. Those aftermarket oil pumps are easy to drop in when you have the timing cover off the 5.4 and they know that. Oil pumps rarely go bad and the engine oil pressure is governed by the engine clearances anyway so why throw more pressure and volume at it? It's like washing your wheel with a fire hose...….overkill. Maybe for long distance high rpm racing with a tired engine or something like that but not needed in the 5.4.

But is makes people feel better! ------

 

[07navi]

But is makes people feel better! ------

Lol, but I would feel worse, especially when I go to sell it and they say " too bad you put those fonky wheels on there"

 

[HawkX66]

Hmm... Good to know. I better tell the one I installed in my BBC and the one I installed in my sons Rustang GT a few years ago. There's nothing wrong with a Melling pump.
I think you're trying to argue that high volume oil pumps aren't necessary. Don't let me put words in your mouth though...

 

[JExpedition07]

I bought the oem Ford oil pump for my 5.4 3V timing job adventure. No issues with the original so sticking with the same one.

 

[07navi]

Hmm... Good to know. I better tell the one I installed in my BBC and the one I installed in my sons Rustang GT a few years ago. There's nothing wrong with a Melling pump.
I think you're trying to argue that high volume oil pumps aren't necessary. Don't let me put words in your mouth though...

Maybe for racing...…..maybe

 

[darmahsd]

You Tube's Ford Makuloco has some good points about changing to the Melling high volume pump. There are some inherent bad designs in the 5.4 3V that keep it from being a prefect motor. Cam chain tension relies on cheap
plastic actuators that use oil pressure to push the tensioner slides against the chains. The seals often blow
behind them, causing that clatter on startup which will eventually cause a chain reaction of problems. (Parden the pun). The Melling high volume pump has a cast backing plate as opposed to OEM sheetmetal which helps maintain top oil pressure. When you get the front cover off to fix the cam chain problems, replacing with this pump helps with upgrading the cam timing set. If you watch his videos, he almost always recommends OEM Motorcraft over aftermarket but makes an exception with this Melling pump. I doubt that he is getting a big bone from them for recommending their pump.

 

[07navi]

You Tube's Ford Makuloco has some good points about changing to the Melling high volume pump. There are some inherent bad designs in the 5.4 3V that keep it from being a prefect motor. Cam chain tension relies on cheap
plastic actuators that use oil pressure to push the tensioner slides against the chains. The seals often blow
behind them, causing that clatter on startup which will eventually cause a chain reaction of problems. (Parden the pun). The Melling high volume pump has a cast backing plate as opposed to OEM sheetmetal which helps maintain top oil pressure. When you get the front cover off to fix the cam chain problems, replacing with this pump helps with upgrading the cam timing set. If you watch his videos, he almost always recommends OEM Motorcraft over aftermarket but makes an exception with this Melling pump. I doubt that he is getting a big bone from them for recommending their pump.

I have seen all of his 5.4 videos at least 2 times each. I am skeptical about any aftermarket parts they always say you need. I doubt if there is anything wrong with the Ford pumps anyway. It's easy to drop a pump in when you have the timing cover off so you can imagine how much they make off those pumps and all they have to do is convince you that you need it. Metal guides would be too harsh and noisy so they go with plastic but plastic isn't automatically bad. All 4 of my guides were like new after 200,000 miles on mine and I didn't even bother to put the new ones in that I bought for it when I put the new tensioners in. The guides go bad from abuse like running low on oil and not changing it, etc. I agree they should have addressed the tensioner leaking problems long ago.

 

[JExpedition07]

The Melling pump is good. The OEM Ford 5.4 3V pump I purchased is good but has an aluminum backing plate which is the weak spot. I’m not worried, but it leaks more from the aluminum plate at high revs. See the back of mine and compare to Melling with cast backing plate:

 

[JExpedition07]

Then Melling: