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Any issues with using a copper washer inside crankcase?

And on second thought, I think the washer keeping the tube centered in the bore is a good thing.

I found this picture from art's website interesting. Same mode of failure. It seems like when this happens, the tube shifts to a side, allows disproportionate pressure to be applied to the seal on one side, and eventually it gets deformed and breaks. Notice the 'failure' is the clean rip, but the cause is the deformed lip from the pressure being applied on one side rather than the other.

oilpan44.jpg


oilpan38.jpg


In this photo though, it does appear that the pipe is not fully inserted into the bore. Was it installed incorrectly?
If so, ****ty design due to absence of poka-yoke.

Did it just work its way out due to loose aluminum pump bore?
If so, ****ty design due to ****ty design.

The more I dig, the more I'm glad I installed the washer. Sure, if it backfires, I'll send K-jets a nice little cake that says 'you were right' in icing

here's another photo I found. In this case, the pipe seems more inserted, but maybe not fully.

TrJo4u5h.jpg
 
^ I hear ya, but I'd rather change seals than shattered oil pumps or gimp along with a slight seal leak as long as it doesn't blow out (never had that happen sooner than 10-20 years or improper install/have other problems by then).

Remember, Art is changing those pipes on ~20+ year old cars though and it's really a happy ending;
rod bearings were OK/didn't chew up the expensive/difficult to replace crank, oil lamp glowed a little at idle hot, but the leak past the o-ring wasn't bad enough above idle (more RPM/pump still is able to push enough oil to keep it from doing serious damage), & cold the oil is less likely to leak past the compromised o-ring, since the oil is thicker/gooier (usually, even "0W" modern synthetic multi-weights.)
Most engine wear in normal civilian use is on cold start-up/priming the system (pulling the oil up from the bottom of the sump/flow thru the filter) or higher RPMs towing, it's still close to relief pressure in those most dangerous situations with the leaky o-ring. Hot idle; not so much.

Short of block heating your car for all start-ups & running synthetic racing straight 30W anyway..

Oil pumps you're kinda catch-22 damned if you do, damned if you don't too on the redblock at this late date:

-First year of tall gear pumps is 1989ish, great, tall gears instead of short that live longer/provide more consistent/better pressure, wonderful.

EXCEPT: Toyota got preferential quality control on the Aisin fan clutches by then.

Take a look at the previous generation cad-plated fan clutch hubs; no leaking of the silicon fluid/black oily residue around the hub on the ~1984-1987? & earlier hubs most times (better quality bearings/bushings & seals) & volvo cars was losing money/struggling after they stopped getting defense subsidy at Bofors,

Volvo probably wasn't in a position to pay top dollar/volume discount for those, this was before the yen crash of 1993ish, Toyota/Aisin was able to charge near-monopoly pricing on the auto trans for the american market & fan clutch and got first pick of the good stuff, volvo didn't have money to redesign/source an alternate part & exchange rate wasn't especially favorable to them those years as they ran low on supply of the previous batch/needed to re-order.

Go take apart a bunch of fan clutches in toyota trucks of the era/forklifts/heavy equipment 1988-1993 if you wish with comparable sized/RPM cooling fan to compare wear/quality control if you don't believe me.

Results: I've changed a TON more fan clutches on ~1988-1993 cars prematurely compared to earlier cad plated clutches.
Engines run at the ragged edge of hot, oil cokes up (insufficient air blowing over the engine/no external cooler on most N/A cars...optional water/oil heat exchanger (standard on 1992+ turbo cars & B280 in beautiful copper) made by Modine for quicker warm-up/towing/turbo use with the larger e-fan radiator); late model oil pump wears out just about as badly as the earlier short gear pump under stress/per year/mile on average. Ouch.

Volvo sells to American market, predominantly, lazy-entitled americans want ice cold A/C sitting in traffic for endless hours of their lives in the blasted sub-urban hell-scape & are migrating to the boiling hot dirty south/ex confederacy, nice efficient non-flammable Freon R12 soon-to-be banned by 1994, only other patented & legal offering is toxic, not flammable, but not (so) O-zone depleting Dupont monopoly patent R134A.

How to make the A/C colder idling with a vastly less efficient (but legal) refrigerant?:
Add larger alternator, MUCH larger radiator & A/C condenser, electric puller fan, bolt them all together in an air-sealed sammich in the 7/9 cars...too late to redesign 240s/soon to kill them off/240 customers are buying an old design at a loss-leader low price anyway.

That's all fine and good, customer's happy, A/C is cold, lasts the warranty.
EXCEPT: Now air can't get around the A/C condenser to continuously cool the engine bay/sump (now way warmer), fan only comes on at the ragged edge of overheat (old-design engine has to pass CA emissions too of course/warmer engine op temp desired for that & didn't yet have reliable inexpensive variable speed E-fan fan controllers ready to source to run the puller e-fan continuously variably in warm weather).
RESULTS: Every single E-fan redblock engine I've pulled apart shows signs of running too hot, oil pump worn out, oil more tar-like even if changed regularly.

Another problem:
B230s they cheaped out on the pistons/ring pack/made them lighter & cheaper to save fuel/meet CAFE standards/cut costs. (No more forged crank and non-tippy tall Mahle pistons of yesteryear).

Piston slap/lots of blowby if they run the least bit low on oil, pistons don't come down as far in the crankcase and get well splashed by the crankshaft like they do on B21/23, even if it's a little low on oil, engine uses oil if there's much / any piston ring pack or bore wear, exacerbating the problem.

More blow-by means more contaminated oil from fuel, more wear on the pump.

So, they installed oil squirters, helps with the blow-by/piston slap, but now the pump has to flow more volume to feed the hungry squirters at the same regulated 5-bar max-pressure on the relief spring; more wear on the gears, hotter oil directly from the bottom sides of the existing longevity-compromised B230 design shorter/lower thermal mass pistons band-aided onto an old engine/oil pump design, great! Better than nothing to mitigate blowby/piston overheat issues somewhat, I guess?

Suppose you want to replace the oil pump with new?
Oh, compare the casings, all the new "Volvo" pumps in the blue box are sh1t quality loose castings with "something got lost in translation" out of stringent production volume quality control under Ford/Geely ownership chinesium re-pops and out of mass production at least 10+ years & Ford/Geely have owned volvo outright basically since 2000/end of all redblocks made in Sweden for marine/stationary applications.
Don't always have an accurate date-code either to help ID/dodge these.

You're probably better off to install your old half-worn-out pump/or freshen it up a little!

Melling "heavy duty" pumps whine/are total garbage quality too.

All I've been able to do is hoard dusty shelf over-stock OE quality pumps manufactured prior to y2k, or out of cool weather/highway driven/oil changed/known history wrecked clutch fan cars made 1989-1990ish seem least worn out (all else being equal).
Hardly consistent/huge inconvenience to source/keep at least 1 spare.
Or cared for boats (though often installed in a cramped engine room in the boat/no air blowing over the sump run wide open on carbs or sitting/neglected on cheaper/smaller boats in the USA market).

I wish you luck, pipe & pump, you're going to need it if longevity/no fuss if your goal!
The washer may well work out just fine & better, but rather preventatively replace seals every 10 years or source known good quality seals (not always easy/predictable as you quite rightly point out).
Probably, in your hot climate, you aren't doing "harm* adding that thin little washer there (if it doesn't fatique/crack/break :lol:). :e-shrug:

You could install the better B21/23 bottom end engine, but they're all ancient and even harder to get quality replacement parts for now than B230...at least they made those tons of more-recent years 85-2000. :lol:
And it wouldn't all totally mate-up to the year/hardware of the car either, or be original/drop in completely, either.

It's interesting to see all the work-arounds/additional design constraints imposed on what's basically a B18 that came out in 1961:
-Cars got heavier/engines needed more torque/displacement.
-Emissions/no more lead in the fuel or ZDDP zinc in the oil to give us heavy metal poisoning breathing the air/disposing of the oil/clog the cat.
-Customers wanted A/C & automatic transmissions in worse traffic/hotter climates etc.
-More oil required to feed SOHC/DOHC heads vs. zinc additive and pushrod B18.
-Customers didn't want to have to know or do anything (basic adjustments/checks), federal implied warranties got more stringent (as long as it lasts the warranty without adjustment and breaks/is irreparable requiring a brand new car 1-mile later, all powers-that-be are happy!).

Resisted getting a 200-series car and drove a D-jet 1971 145 w/power steering for years, which was a better car in many ways, long term, except to many years of 1-year-only parts & lacking some creature comforts the newer 245Turbo had.
 
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Apparently I completely missed this page of the max effort oil pump thread.

So I'm not going at it alone at least

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Oh no, many others have been there, infamous issue/annoyance with greasy elbows from countless transfer-tube seal jobs, to show for it.
I don't think the max effect thread OP is a mechanic that's seen 1000s of these cars come & go for customers though, for better or worse?

Another engineer & enthusiast-hobbiest behind a desk trying to make the best informed decision/take the best course of action with the resources available, but scientific/sample size of 1000s of cars over 20+ years real world IDK if he's got access/had the experience of that in years past, or easily could, understandably?

But on paper, he's thinking about the problem for a more motor-sporty application/heavier duty/optimization at least? Worth thinking about.

Check out the old stealthfti (RIP) pbase if it's still up too.
https://pbase.com/stealthfti
https://pbase.com/stealthfti/squirtsys
https://pbase.com/stealthfti/lubesys
https://pbase.com/stealthfti/lblock

Doesn't tell the whole story, but long term mechanic 'experience.' with good photos.
My experience is similar, for whatever it is and isn't worth or applicable or not.

E-fan/turbo/oil-squirter/hot weather cars with infrequent oil changes o-ring life span vastly diminished, especially with towing or A/C on in traffic or both.

N/A 240 with a good fan clutch/no squirters, decent quality oil changed & late pump/good fitting transfer pipe highway driven/cool weather 82-87 T-stat/cooling system kept tip top generally?
No big deal/should last closer to 20-30+ years.

Extreme cold is kind of brutal too if not block heated...slams a hard/rigid o-ring against the pipe on startup/straight to 5bar at idle with the oil so thick...
...not so great for the engine bearings either.
Block heated gentle temperate-marine climate minimal hill-climbing highway use only?
Owner may kill themselves in the gloomy/cloudy/constant drizzle/snow/slush, leaving a very good condition garaged car (transfer tube seals 'n all)? :lol:
 
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