Unfortunately, the only other check you could do for the relief valve is free length measurement. The details on location and specifications are in the Rave. How'd you find out the original pump had failed? On inspection or was it giving you trouble?

 

I found the pump had failed when my crank stopped moving. I was idling and it just stopped. No coughing, wheezing, lights, noises, nothing. It just stopped. I had no idea what was going on until I pulled the oil pump cover off and found that it had completely exploded and seized the crank in the process.
I didn't want to mess around with getting a used timing cover with a chance of it being gouged up and figured I'd break out the credit card and just replace the whole thing new so I could get it back on the road as soon as possible. It's my daily driver.




Oil pump. Possibly broken.

I cleaned the stainer, oil pan, and pickup tube before putting it back together so I can't imagine any debris was introduced. I even ran a bore scope through the pickup tube to make sure I had gotten all the pieces that fell back into it from the old pump gears.

 

After a catastrophic failure like that I'm leaning towards debris lodged in the relief valve. If I were you I'd be taking off the upper and lower intakes and rocker covers for a thorough inspection. The oil galleys that feed the rocker shafts through the heads are pretty small roughly 3/16" I.D. and plug easily with varnish, paraffin and coke deposits. With the top end open you can pull and inspect your lifters and they're oil galleys for debris. I've never tried but I don't see why you can't get to the relief valve while on the vehicle( only with the front cover on the bench) but before you do you may want to contact BP Utah about voiding warranty if you disassemble. I'm betting there's a chunk of that steel lodged in the relief valve seat.

 

There are two valves on either side of the oil pump. You can see and manipulate the spring for one of them.

You can remove them. Just remove circlips.

I took mine apart but after doing do I wish I hadn't. I really don't see how such a simple system (piston on the end of a spring) can be bad unless it is stuck in a position or the spring is broken.

 

I can't see how, but I do think the symptoms point to an issue with the valves. I tried to pull the ones out of my old cover last night (just to familiarize myself without breaking anything) but after taking off the circlips, I couldn't get the end caps to budge. Maybe the o-rings are just gunked up.
Did yours come out easily once you removed the clips? Or is there some trick I should learn?

 

Probably too simple, but I didn't see mention of replacing pick up tube o ring, did you?

 

Oh boy. If that turns out to be the problem, I'm gonna owe you guys a beer or something. I reused the O-ring because I didn't want to wait for a new one and the one that was on there was pretty new. I have two of them now. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Man, I'm gonna feel pretty stupid.

 

Let's hope it's that simple.

I could use a beer!

 

One came out easy. The other, not so much.

 

Haha. I just found your thread describing your troubles. Thanks for the heads up!