Oil pump problems

Hi I'm new to the list. My name is Brian, I'm from Arizona and I have a '63 2 door Comet Wagon. I have been working on a '79 200 to replace the 170 in my '63 Comet. I was about to reassemble my motor tonight but when I went to put my oil pan on, I noticed that the sender from my '63 motor was hitting the pan. I'm using the '63 pan and '63 sender, I noticed that the oil pump from the '79 is a little bit taller and my '63 pump doesn't fit. What do I need? A oil pump from an earlier 200 prehaps? I seem to have been running into so many problems getting this engine in my Comet.

When you say the "sender" is hitting the pan I have to assume you are talking about the oil pump pickup tube/screen that bolts to the pump with two bolts? Are you by chance mixing a rear sump pan with the pickup tube designed for a mid/front sump pan? If so, you may need to go back to the older pan to fit it in your car.

You can tweak the pickup tube slightly by just gently bending it, but the 63 pump may not work for you for other reasons.

The 60-64 pump uses a 1/4" driveshaft. The 64-later pumps used a 5/16" drive shaft. The early pump should bolt on to a later engine, but the later block also requires a later, larger diameter distributor which uses the bigger driveshaft, so the early distributor will not work either.

The best fix would be to use a 65-later Mustang or Falcon/Comet oil pump and pickup. The 63 pan should work with that. Make sure you use a 5/16" driveshaft and any 65-later distributor will drop in.

I noticed the driveshaft differences last night when I was messing with the pumps. I figured that I could maybe swap parts from the new dist. with the old one to make it work. Is this possible? Or should I just get a 65 dist. and leave it at that? I should have just waited to find an earlier 200, I was just so excited to get a motor and tranny for 200 bucks, but damned if it hasen't been a pain in the ass. Thanks for the help.

As long as you're mixing and matching, you should check out a later carb and a dual advance distributor. Preferably an electronic unit like the one that came on your late-model engine.