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Oil Pumps & Accessories
Pontiac V8 Oil Pumps & Accessories
Pressure Is Cheap Insurance — Oil Pumps & Accessories for Pontiac V8s
The oil pump is the cheapest part in a Pontiac V8 that can cost you the whole engine. Oil Pumps & Accessories covers the pump, the drive shaft that turns it off the distributor, the pickup and screen, and the tools that make a clean install possible. Every pump here fits the Pontiac 301 through 455.
Butler stocks Melling standard and performance pumps in 60 psi and 80 psi, plus the Butler PRO pump — a core completely remachined, blueprinted and flow tested in house, offered in 60-70 psi and 80 psi, with an optional Paddle Wheel gear upgrade. Hardened drive shafts round it out, including a longer shaft for IAII blocks.
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1. 60-70 psi or 80 psi — picking the pressure
Pontiac oiling is a volume-and-pressure conversation, and the honest answer is that most street combinations do not need the biggest pump on the shelf. Butler built the 60-70 psi PRO pump specifically for that customer.
| 60-70 psi, high volume | The Melling standard high-volume pump and the Butler PRO 60-70 psi both land here. The PRO version ships with the oil pickup screen and hardware. This is the range for a milder combination that does not need 80-plus psi. |
| 80 psi Ram Air / Super Duty style | Melling's RA/SD high-volume 80 psi pump is sold with or without a pickup, and Butler's PRO 80 psi is the remachined version of the same idea. Melling rates the 80 psi performance pump at a 30 percent pressure increase over the 60 psi performance pump. |
| Shim adjustment | Both Butler PRO pumps include an extra shim that raises bypass spring pressure 5-10 lbs. Butler ships the bypass cap untightened in case you use the shim — it has to be tightened with thread locker before the pump goes in. |
2. What the Butler PRO pump actually gets
The PRO pump is a Butler Performance exclusive. It is not a repackaged box — it is a pump that comes apart, gets machined, and gets checked before it ships.
| Gears and plate | Anti-gall and anti-cavitation dimples in the bottom of both gears, oil retention points on each tooth to keep the gears from galling the plate, and an extra thick .250" diamond lapped oil pump plate. The thick plate is also sold separately for a Pro Series pump. |
| Shaft and idler | Micro polished drive shaft, idler gear honed with an oil weep hole added, and the housing machined for improved lubrication of the shaft and gear. |
| Bypass | Ball and sealing surface machined and blueprinted, spring tested and blueprinted. The gasket surface is diamond lapped and a copper gasket is included. |
| Paddle Wheel option | Butler offers both PRO pumps with a Paddle Wheel gear design, which Butler states provides extra exit velocity in feet per second at a rate of 2x1 over normal gear-to-gear methods. |
| Flow chart | Every PRO pump ships with its flow chart, so you know what you bought rather than guessing. |
3. Drive shafts — and the one that will ruin your day
The shaft that spins the pump off the distributor gets ignored until it twists. Butler recommends and uses a hardened shaft in its own engines.
| Standard length, stock blocks | The Butler hardened oil pump drive shaft and the All Pontiac standard length hardened shaft are for stock blocks. The distributor drive end of the All Pontiac shaft measures .470". |
| IAII aftermarket blocks | Those blocks need the 1/8" longer shaft. Do not substitute a stock-length shaft in an IAII block. |
| Installation note | The All Pontiac shafts do not have tangs to hold the shaft in when installed from the bottom — they are installed through the distributor hole. |
| Melling shaft | Melling's own oil pump drive shaft is stocked as the plain replacement option. |
4. Pickup, clearance and priming
The pump can be perfect and still starve the engine if the pickup is wrong. This is the section worth reading twice.
| Pan-to-pickup clearance | Butler recommends 1/8 to 1/4" of oil pan to pickup clearance. It must be checked with all pumps and pickups regardless of which oil pan you are running. |
| Pickup tab on a PRO pump | Because the PRO plate is thicker, a pickup with a mounting tab may need a slight modification — bend the tab up and elongate the mounting hole. |
| Screens and tools | Butler stocks the Melling 3/4" tube oil pump screen for stock replacement pans, a 3/4" oil pump pickup driver tool for setting the pickup, and a Pontiac oil pump primer shaft for pre-oiling before first fire. |
| Clean it first | Always clean and inspect a new pump before installing. Open it, check for machining debris, burrs or dry gears, and lubricate the gears with assembly lube or clean oil. Melling advises against packing a pump with heavy chassis grease — it can clog internal passages. |
If you are not sure which pressure your combination wants, call before you order. The difference between a mild rebuild and a high-rpm stroker is the difference between a 60 psi pump and an 80 psi pump, and the wrong answer costs bearings either way.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Call our tech team at 866-762-7527. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.