No oil while priming
 

I am attempting to prime my motor but am getting no oil through the push rods.

Several weeks ago, I attempted to prime with a flat head extension on my drill while the motor was out of the car. As soon as I started, some assembly lube started to push out but about 10 seconds later the bit fell into my oil pan. :(
After draining the oil and pulling the pan I decided to wait until the motor was in the car and use a proper rod.

Fast forward to no.

After several minutes of drilling with an actual priming rod, I am getting no oil out of any pushrod. I have rotated the crank multiple times.

Double checked the direction of the distributor and that there was oil. I am slightly worried this could be a major problem.

Drill I am using is a new 6 amp black and decker w/ cord.

Is the drill turning counter clockwise?? Need to have it in reverse.

X2 Drill has to be run in reverse. I use a 3/8" drill motor not sure if it's comparable to yours. JD

turn the motor over every so often when priming

Any chance the oil pick-up fell off of the oil pump?

EDIT: Mis-read the first post.

I have been drilling in reverse. What is next to check?

Eh? The oil pump shaft turns the same direction that the distributor turns, both being counter-clockwise as viewed from above.

Bear

Alright, I mis-read the first post.

Drill has been running in reverse. Now what?

And you need toprime for longer than you think.....go for 10 min straight!

Does the drill motor load down at all? If the pump is working you WILL notice the drill motor is being loaded. Turn CCW as mentioned.

george

I can give that a try. I'm leaning toward my drill not giving out enough power. I don't have an oil gauge hooked up so I can't tell pressure.

Is priming even necessary for my case? I pulled the motor out, replaced valve springs, lifters cam and timing gear+chain. Reused but cleaned the pushrods. Have new cam bearings. I didnt have the motor cleaned out or replace and water/oil plugs.

Yes it does and it starts to produce a burning smell after awhile. Probably ran for 2 minutes straight. Perhaps not enough?

It took a long time for me to get oil to the rockers, a long time.

I was told afterwards that I didn't need to verify oil coming out of each rocker and that all I was doing was washing the assembly lube off the bearing surfaces? I have heard it both ways, to rotate the engine and make sure oil was coming out of all rockers, or just get oil pressure and don't run it too long?

Anyway, mine did fine, and I was worried like you that it was coming out after a couple of minutes, but it will eventually, nothing out of the ordinary I would say.

Not enuf power...........
 

It has been discussed before, but it's hard to underestimate how much power is needed to turn an oil pump when priming. To illustrate, I use a 25 year old variable speed 1/2" Sears drill that is rated @ 3/4 hp for this task. I have to bury the trigger and hold on tight as the torque tries to twist it out of my hands.

In my case, is priming even necessary?

If for no other reason, I personally would do it just to make sure that the oiling system is working. It would be bad to find out you aren't getting oil pressure after you start the engine the first time.

I also suggest getting an oil pressure gauge, even a temporary one to use as an indicator. An electrical one is easy to connect.

A drill with a 1/2" chuck will do the job nicely. A smaller drill motor may not spin the pump high enuf to develop a lot of pressure, i.e. take longer to get up the push rods.

George

Can't kill those old Craftsman drills. I have 1 from the 60s, 500 rpm and I use it. I usually set it so the firewall prevents it from spinning so I don't have to fight the torque and leave it run till I get pressure at both bottom, top and push rods. Figure 500 rpm on pump =s 1000rpm engine. Sometimes it takes a while to prime

Hopefully you are just not doing it long enough.
I did have a case before that the machine shop i used did not clean out all the passages in the block. I ended up with broken teeth from a composite timing gear in the passages that run from the mains up to the cam. After clearing these out I got plenty up top. Also check to make sure the rear galley plug is in your block, if you have had any machine work done. this would lead to no top end oil either.

If I am priming my engine and pull a lifter out, it will shoot to the ceiling. So try pulling out a lifter and see if you are getting anything at all.

Hope it is just your drill.

good luck!

Guy I know did some damage to his motor. It sounded like every valve needed to adjusted. Ended up being RTV in one of the passeages.

hmm I didnt get any machine work done and I didnt fully disassemble the block. I really have a feeling that it is something simple. I'll update tonight.

As others said you fell the drill lug way down as it starts pumping and it does take awhile to get it up to all the rockers and I usually rotate it 90 degrees and do some more several times.

I always drive the pump until I get oil out of every PR onto the rocker before I start using an oil pressure gauge. I usually have to rotate the crank several times 90º before I get there. I use a Craftsman 3/8" drill and the pump really pulls it down, gets hot by the end. Done this with HFT, SFT and HR cams.

I think if its getting hard to prime then its good. I always feel by hand that its getting tough to turn with a screw driver then good to go. You didn't perform a full rebuild so get it fired. Did you do the Cam bearings? I may have jumped the gun if you installed them incorrectly. Woody

I'm one of those that stops priming once the drill bogs down and I get a solid reading from the temporary pressure gauge. Why go to all the trouble to slather up the bearings with expensive assembly lube if you're going to stand there and hose it all to the bottom of the pan? If you have done your assembly correctly the top end will have enough lube already; and once pressure is up, all the galleys are full of oil.

It's never a good idea to let the smoke out of the drill :p.

Did you soak the new lifters?

By design some cam/lifter combo's make it very difficult, if not near impossible to get oil to all the rocker arms simply by running the drill and turning the engine a few times.

I've ran into this more in recent years as we are using more custom cam profiles with smaller base circles, custom flat solid set-ups, and retrofitting to hydraulic and solid roller stuff.

It's not really a big deal, as long as you make sure the oil band on the lifters is correctly located during engine assembly.

Many lifters are also metered, as I found out when using the Crower HIPPO lifters for the first time. We gave up trying to get oil to the rockers first time we used them, but they do a fine job in actual use of controlling oil to the top of the engine.

+1 on assembly lube, if you are going to wash it all into the pan with the drill anyhow.....Cliff

UPDATE:

Went down last night committed to running the drill for 10 minutes. After about 3, oil came out of 2 cylinders. Rotated the crank 90 degrees a few turns and several more minutes of turning, I had of out of each lifter. :)

Looks like i just needed a little more patience.

Thanks for all the help

My 470/409 took forever to get it to the top on every one and I even used an old distributor to seal the passges or Chevies won't get it to the top. I think it was like Cliff mentioned where the oil bands of the lifters were.

On my Pontiacs I usually do it with teh valley pan off to see if there are any leaks around the lifters. My old 72 HO block did for a flat tappet around where the holes were tapped for lifter restrictors. Had to go taller rollers on that block.

I have also found that heating the oil up first will speed up lube times. Ben and I were priming his 400 on the test stand and the oil was not coming to all the rockers. I positioned a halogen lamp under the oil pan until the pan felt warm to the touch (20-30 minutes) Drill motor spun easier and it primed up fine after that. :)

It's also cold in most of the US this time of year, so as SRR says, cold oil makes it much more difficult to prime an engine ;-)

I agree just fired my engine and checking for oil by priming talked to my builder I told him I had oil to the lifter gallery But none to the rockers he said fire it up and watch for oil it can take some time ....all was good......