Hi, I'm rebuilding a couple of Gen V 454 Mercuiser engines, casting 10114188. I've bored .060 and stroked with the Eagle 11111 rotating assembly, giving me 496 ci each. I've picked up a couple of Melling M77HV oil pumps and was about to buy some replacement pickups - measured the clearance with putty, and discovered the stock pickups are the correct length.

I took a look at some of the pickups available, and am leaning towards reusing the old as they are readily available and appear to  be as effective as anything I;ve seen. Anyone got any input?

If you reuse the old pickups, make sure they are absolutely clean (no crud or debris inside), and that the tubes fit tightly into the pumps so they don't fall out. 

Brendan 

Thanks for the reply, Brendan.

 I went a little further - they both were a press fit, so I wiped them with copper permatex before driving them home. They ain't movin. I would have preferred new Moroso pickups with the support bracket, but didn't want this to hold up the build.

I also took the pumps apart, deburred the oil feed galley, degreased, and then wiped the inner faces and shafts with white lithium. Oil pump bolt at 65ft-lbs on BBC's.

Degreeing the cams today - they are box stock, as i'm being careful not to damage my new lowers by breaking a stock valvetrain with a decent bumpstick. (Valvetrain$$ is next year.) I'll advance them to add some dynamic compression, but that's about all the tweaking that can be done with 3904359 (470/480 lift@valve, 214/224@.050, 114 LSA).