oil pressure question

[420A BoostedDSM]

ok so im rebuilding my 420A and while trying to get some oil pressure in the engine, after it is mostly put back together, i cant seem to get any pressure. im not sure if this is because it is a crankshaft driven oil pump and i just cant spin it fast enough, or if theres a problem somewhere along the line...also, i cant seem to get oil up to the cam followers. i already had to tear it all down and piece it together piece by peice because i forgot the o-ring that went in between the block and the bedplate, so i know that cant be my problem. alldata states that the oil pressure at curb idle speed should be 4psi(25Kpa) but this just sounds too low to me. anyone have any ideas? i really dont wanna continue until i can get some oil pressure through my engine.

 

[BogusSVO]

How are you trying to spin the engine?

 

[Josh97eclipse]

You need to unhook the coil pack plug and the fuel pump relays then crank it a few times. I never primed mine when I started my built motor the first time....oops

 

[420A BoostedDSM]

all the coil pack and stuff havent even been put back on the engine yet. the engine is out of the car on a stand. im spinning it with a 1/2 inch drive breaker bar and a 19mm socket. all by hand. i realize i wont hit anywhere near even idling rpm's, it spins over nice and smooth but its still not easy work cranking it by hand,and im wondering if thats why i cant seem to build any pressure. everyone else in my class has it easy and all of their engines have oil pumps that just run off of a gear on the cam but like i said mine is a little bit different of a situation. im just wondering if its normal to not be able to build up any pressure on a crank driven oil pump as opposed to a cam driven one. im also wondering if the whole 4 psi thing is normal but it shows up the same on alldata and my chiltons manual. but 4 psi just seems low to me. and hypothetically if im not able to achieve the same rpm's as when its idling how could i even build any measurable pressure? i know its not a problem with the pump (or the pickup tube), when i take off the oil filter and spin it over it starts squirting out, plus its a brand new pump. but i cant seem to get oil up to the top where it should be squirting out of the little oil holes in the cam followers.

 

[Josh97eclipse]

Okay well im not getting why you are trying to prime the oil pump out of the car? When you get it into the car do what I said and it will oil the bearings etc. As far as the head goes that's why you use assembly lube on the cams and bleed the lifters.

 

[420A BoostedDSM]

so then i should be ok then right? everyone else in my class has been able to build pressure in their engines by just driving the oil pump by hand. i was hoping that i just wasnt able to spin it fast enough and it wasnt some other problem. but ive double checked everything that i could think of and everything seems to be working properly, minus the fact that i wasnt able to achieve the same results as my classmates. but it does make sense just because its designed much differently. thanks for the info, ill be sure to prime the system like you said as well. if ya wanna see some pics of my progress you should check out my thread i posted a few days ago in the newbie intros forum. its titled project 420a. lemme know what you think!

ok since curiosity has gotten the best of me ive decided to take apart the oil pump and take a look inside. what i found was that the inlet was pretty much packed solid with some sort of thick, heavy assembly greaseWTF. ill post a pic later on but im just home for my lunch break so i havent been able to take a pic yet. but this is just how i got the new pump from the manufacturer . ive decided to clean it out, bolt it back on and see where it takes me. i hope this will take care of my problem with getting oil up to the cylinder head. ill repost tonight and let everyone know how it goes

 

[Josh97eclipse]

Im pretty sure that its supposed to be packed. Ill look at your pics.

 

[BogusSVO]

Dude.. you will never spin the engine fast enough by hand to pick up oil pressure.

ok, now that you have pulled the oil pump apart, and cleaned the "thick, heavy grease" out and by now, installed the oil pump and tried to prime the oiling system.. and still did not get the oil up to the head.

Here is what you need to do, pull the oil pump back off, pull the pump back apart, and repack the oil pump with thick, heavy grease.

Now install the oil pump again.

If you want to prime your engine on the stand, you have to use an oil prime tool, most are home made, but they are sold.

Remove the oil galley plug that feeds the mains, install an adapter, and inject pressurized oil into the galley, from there it will follow the oil system.


BTW, the thick, heavy grease in the oil pump is there to make priming the engine easier.

 

[420A BoostedDSM]

Hey I got oil pressure now! Got it up to 20 psi. By hand. Look I don't know why I had to do it this way either but it's the way that I'm being taught at school. My instructors didn't want to leave anything to chance and risk possibly having to pull the engine out after its back in (they have a pretty good track record with the engines they help rebuild; they really do know what they're doing). Hey look at it this way; if we never did this testing I never would have realized that I forgot that o ring between the bedplate and block. And I'm sure that a reasonable amount of assembly grease is necessary, but when it's nearly clogging the inlet for the oil I'm not sure how much good it's doing. After clearing it out of the inlet I was able to get oil up to the lifters as well so problem solved I guess? I'll still post a pic but that will have to wait till this afternoon when I'm done. Thanks a ton for the input guys!

"The pump should be primed before assembly. The preferred way of doing this is to turn the pump by hand until you see oil flow from the outlet side. The use of heavy lubricants is not recommended because they do not circulate easily and can cause oil starvation to critical parts when the engine is first started" -that's right out of my textbook.

 

[420A BoostedDSM]

here's the pic

ok i guess it wont let me upload it? i posted it to my album though its down near the end.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.131522840244964.24563.100001617478654&type=1&l=3665091a63