another thing, would it be alright to use a decent torch to heat up the crankshaft timing gear to make removal a bit easier?

 

I used a cheapo 2 jaw puller from autozone on the last gear I pulled, and I had a drive shaft yoke sitting around that was larger than the crank snout so I used it to tap on the new gear. Could have used an old gear or piece of pipe, or a socket or whatever.

You can heat the gear if you want, but I didn't find that necessary, they don't come off easy by them selves but they aren't really a fight with a puller if that makes sense.

When you look at pullers you will need the larger one at the store, for the longer arms.

 

And if you look at redxray's pic of the puller, you can see where he grinded the ends of the puller off, he grinded the ends flat, they normally stick out a bit with rounded off tips. So compare your puller to his picture, look at the very end tips of the arms, the part that is furthest most forward in the picture

 

So I went ahead and took y'all's advice and ordered a melling 10296 and will return the melling m295HV. Should I leave the high pressure spring in the pump or switch it to the stock pressure spring? Also I think I got the whole how to get the crank sprocket off situation figured out

 

It's damn near impossible to get the 10296 apart. Ask me how I know...

I'd recommend just run it as-is.

 

I already have the part in hand though, its available on Amazon for like 160

 

Wait I apologise I just realized you meant it's impossible to TAKE apart I thought you meant impossible to find one. Oof. I saw a review that said the same thing it's bolted together stupidly tight so I'll just leave the high pressure spring spring in

 

My melling pickup tube part 324S came with a fat red o ring already installed on it. Would this be the right o ring for the melling oil pump?

 

It should. But as always, checking to make sure is on you, if it isn't right, and you slap it together you'll be eating a motor. So don't just trust it, check it.

 

O rings are fairly simple in all applications. It should make decent contact on the inner and outer surfaces of the o ring. So if the o ring sits snug against the tube, then your inside diameter is good. Now take the o ring and check it in the pump if it makes good contact around the outer edge of the o ring to the pump body then that is good. If it's too skinny or fat in any way it's the wrong one.

Check it and confirm the fit, if you have other o rings see how those fit you'll know when it's the right one, o ring fitment follows simple logic there's no secret sauce there.

There are some cases where o rings get pinched to seal, or squished. This IS NOT one of those cases, the o ring slides up and into the pump body and seals by making contact with the outer edge of the o ring against the oil pump body. You should have light resistance pushing the seal into the pump WITH OIL ON IT. If there is no resistance and all and fits sloppy and loose the o ring needs to be thicker, if it is a bear to get into the pump then it is too thick.

Sorry for writing a book on o rings. When I started working with them I had to get down the basics and the logic, I'm old enough that when I started working on cars o rings were less common that gaskets lol and there is a little different approach to o rings versus gaskets.