can you check oil pressure on a car without the timing belt on?

[way2slowtalon]

Question: can you check oil pressure on a car without the timing belt on, or cranking it over when it's all connected?

I still believe I have no oil pressure after a new oil pump install. I have tried the drill on oil pump sprocket and not even a drop of oil reached the head

is there any other way to check before I put everything together?

 

[Jafro]

pull your oil pressure sending unit off the oil filter housing and spin that air ratchet. See if it pumps oil out. It could be that the head's oil supply is clogged. There's a couple of great threads about how the head is supplied with oil HERE and HERE.

If you've had your head resurfaced, this could be your problem.

Also, I had issues with my turbo getting ridiculously hot. I RTV'd several of my coolant parts on and a chunk of RTV had clogged the coolant lines on the turbo. Something like this could have happened IF you try removing that oil pressure sending unit, spinning it, and oil actually does come out. Something may have clogged the oil feed hole, but it shouldn't have made it past the pickup screen/oil filter.

 

[way2slowtalon]

Great post. Thanks. I should have noted my head is currently of the car, and no drops of oil are going through the ports in the block. So tommorow I will take the sender out and spin it with the drill again. My question is what if at that point I do not get gushing? My passages should be free of debris and rtv.

 

[Jafro]

If the head isn't on the car, then you shouldn't need to bother with the sending unit at all. It should be gushing everywhere out of that hole at the tear drop next to where the tear drop lines up at stud #10.

If you're re-using your old oil pump/front case, I hope you packed the gears with grease before bolting it up. What frequently happens with dry gears is there's not enough vacuum pressure to pull oil up out of the pan. Packing it with grease makes it prime the pump instantly. Check out the following vid from 4:45-5:33... I always squish grease into the gears so there's something there to make sure air doesn't leak around the gaps in the gears preventing the oil from pumping through the block.

YouTube - 5. 4g63 Teardown II

Also, if you deleted your balance shafts, there's an oil hole in the bearing races that has to be blocked off or else you'll have no oil pressure without the shafts in place. If you did this, then what you'd need to do is take the front case back off, knock the bearings out of the block (I use the old balance shaft because I don't have the bearing tool, and moderately tap the shaft with a hammer against the edge of the bearing until it falls out), and flip them 180° re-installing them so the oil hole is blocked off by the bearing. That part isn't in my video because my camera batteries died. Sorry. That's how it's done, though.

So... if you blocked those oil holes, and you don't want to take the front case back off, try putting vacuum pressure on the oil hole where the head bolts up and spin the oil pump gears with the drill. Once you can get oil out of it, it should be primed. If you still can't get it to pump with just the drill after that, you've got an oiling problem and need to pull it down again to find out why.

If you use an air ratchet to spin the pump, the stub shaft will come loose from the shock of the impact wrench and fall into the pan, essentially disconnecting the gear from the pulley. That tidbit isn't necessarily for you, but maybe for others. Never use an impact wrench to spin the oil pump.

 

[way2slowtalon]

Update: I got 0 oil when I took of my oil filter housing. Balance shafts are still in this car and a brand new oil pump/ front case is installed. Drill method on oil pump produces nothing.

Can someone post the oil diagram again? I can't find it anwhere. Other than taking the front case off again, is there anyother test I can do?

 

[Jafro]

Pull the oil pan and make sure the pickup is bolted tightly to the oil pump with a good gasket on it. Use the right gasket. RTV is not the answer here. If you remove the pickup tube for whatever reason, you can pack the oil pump with grease by cramming it in the pickup hole with your fingers... and continue doing that while occasionally rotating the oil pump. If it doesn't suck the grease in, I bet there's a gear missing from the oil pump assembly, which would be ridiculous.