----The oil pump gasket is not only just a gasket designed to prevent oil leakage between the Oil pump body and the pump base but also acts as a shim/spacer for the oil pump gears clearance settings. The oil pump base needs the thickness of the gasket to give it the correct clearance from the rotating gears otherwise the pump gears will bind on the base plate and cause subsequent & catastrophic damage to your engine. .
Final checks
--- It is always the best idea, to check the correctness and free rotation of the gears prior to fitting the front timing cover and distributor. Final checks such as this are always very important when it comes to building reliable engines of all power levels.
- This information applies to Distributor driven Oil pumps and not the Crank driven type so would be (with exceptions) 1968 to 1993 Rover V8 Engine types
Dont get it wrong
--- You can see from the pcture below the immediate damage that can be caused, In this instance the Oil pump gasket was not used but Silicone gasket was used instead,
