We get asked this one from time to time, and the answer is, it depends on the engine. A Chevy engine can use a high volume oil pump just fine where most Ford's have trouble running one. Why? Some people say that a high volume oil pump can pump all of the oil to the top of the motor and basically empty out the oil pan before it can all drain back again. On some engines, such as Oldsmobiles where oil drain back is a common problem, this "could" have some slight truth to it, but 98% of the time, it has no basis. First off; high volume oil pump only pumps about 15% to 20%more oil than a stock pump does. So that would mean that your stock pump is only 15% o 20% away from sucking your oil pan dry? That's highly unlikely.  The real reason is this: What drives the oil pump? The distributor gear does. Chevy's use a much larger gear than a Ford does, in fact, it's about twice the size, which means it's about twice as strong. The distributor gear is what takes the load of spinning the oil pump. The more volume you pump through an engine, the more load gets put on that gear. Ford gears tend to get eaten-up because they just aren't big or strong enough to take the load that a high volume pump puts on it. Once you eat-up a distributor gear it is pretty much disaster for the cam gear as well. If you wipe either one out, count on having to replace the cam shaft! This doesn't even get into all of that metal going through the engine, which doesn't help things like bearings. We tend to use stock oil pumps on Ford's and high volume pumps on "performance" Chevy's. Keep in mind, a performance engine will have slightly larger clearances which require a bit more oil flow & volume. On race prepped Ford engines that we run high volume pumps on, we use aluminum-bronze gears and just keep a close eye on them for premature wear, because they WILL wear out in a short amount of time. Technology has advanced a little these days with the invention of composite gears. They aren't made out of metal yet they are practically indestructable. The cool thing is they are compatable with all types of cams, from cast iron to billet steel, where before... if you didn't have the right type of gear on your distributor to match the type of cam you had, you were looking at disaster in a short amount of time. Now; some people will say to run a stock pump because it won't rob as much power from the engine as compared to a high volume pump, but they install the "high pressure" spring in it to make more pressure. Keep in mind... pressure makes volume. Volume = load. If you ever forget to hook-up your oil pressure gauge line and you fire the engine up, you are going to have a LOT of oil coming out of that tiny little 1/8" line because of the pressure behind it. If there was very little pressure, not much oil would come out. Like I said; pressure makes volume, and pressure increases load. Another thing to keep in mind is that increased pressure DOES increase the load on the distributor gear, so you didn't really save that much by going with a stock pump with a high pressure spring.

The next question should be; Do you really NEED a high volume oil pump for your average mild performance engine? The answer is no. A stock pump will do a fine job most of the time. Unless you have fairly large clearances, like .0025" on the rods and .003" - .004" on the crank, then a stock pump shoud be just fine. Now; some Ford guys will say they run high volume oil pumps and get away with it. That's probably true for later model "roller" engines because they used a much stronger steel gear instead of a cast iron gear like all of the early engines had in them. The key words here though are "get away with it". It's still REALLY hard on those little gears and you should REALLY take caution with Fords when running HV pumps.