fredseebeck

I have changed the oil yesterday in my 79 911SC and noticed that the suction pipe that leads down into the sump plate screen filter is slightly loose. That is to say that I can rotate it 5-10 degrees back and forth and in and out of the pump about 1/16 inch. I looked up at where it connects to the oil pump housing and noticed a heavy bead around this connection, but am unsure whether this is some sort of epoxy or other rubber seal.
My question is whether this should be loose like I found it or tight and not moveable? I can see that this may allow air to be sucked thru the pump at the connection with the oil housing rather than being a tight seal, cutting down on pump efficiency. Does anyone know if there is an o-ring seal or something internal to the pump housing that holds this pipe in place?
My car has the updated sump screen filter with built in venturi to stop the crankcase filling problem that plagued those cars when under track driving conditions. However, don' t know if the previous engine rebuilder got the rest of the pump assembly right.

Tom F

The pickup tube is epoxied in place. That's the ring of material you see up by the pump. They can work their way loose, and often do, by a number of mechanisms, including putting the sump plate on wrong (interference with drain plug) and soaking the pump in a solvent that weakens the epoxy. I think that there may be a lot of them running loose out there, because the pickup screens hold them in place. However, I would be concerned. I had the replacement type screen on my car and it was nearly a disaster. The welds that hold the baffle plate to the screen broke, and the baffle plate worked its way down to partially obstruct the pickup. The result was some very high oil temps and weird oil levels. Anyway, it would only happen at high sustained speeds, which tells me that there's a hell of a lot of suction around that pickup tube when the baffle plate is used. I went back to the regular basket strainer, without baffle plate, and that was the end of the problem. By the way, I bought the replacement pickup screen with baffle plate new from the Porsche dealer. And, I'm not saying that no one should use the updated pickup screen. But, I'm staying away from them!

Based on my experience and observation, a loose pickup tube could lead to some big problems. With the high suction that thing sees, I wouldn't want to depend on the baffle/strainer to stabilize the tube in the long run.

My two cents' worth is to suggest that you shouldn't mess with a loose pickup tube. You'd better find a way to re-epoxy or otherwise afix it. Your alternative is a complete engine teardown to put in a new pump!