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I didn’t see any nicks but I won’t rule it outIf the oil pump pickup tube o-ring was nicked during installation, then it could caused those issues. This assumes the correct o-ring size was installed. Different oil pumps/tubes call for different size o-rings.
I am currently using 5-20, 10-30 wouldn’t be a bad route to goFor an older engine, with higher clearances, increasing viscosity to a 10-30 oil is ok. Are you using 5-20 viscosity?
Pressure was actually lower before changing the pump, it definitely went up. I am using a melling pump but can’t for the life of me remember if I bought the high flow, I’m gonna dig through my paperwork and see if I can find it...that may just be my solution...You didn’t specify if the pressure was the same before you changed the oil pump. I can only assume you changed it because of low pressure? Was there any difference at all? I suggest sending an oil sample off to Blackstone Labs for analysis while you work on this issue, just to see how much wear is happening. Also like mentioned, there’s different o-rings so when you installed the pump are you sure you used the right one, and exactly what pump did you use? Melling has 3 different pumps for these engines and you should have gone with the high volume high pressure one I believe due to your mileage.