Denis Hartigan came by this morning to help put the motor in. We ran into some problems in that the engine wouldn't turn over with the starter motor and a fresh charge on the battery. Pulled the plugs and it barely turned over. Denis stayed for a couple of hours helping me push and pull and ponder what to do. He left after a couple of hours and I was alone in my thoughts thinking I need to heat up the engine; that the block was just too cold, which I suspected would be the problem with such tight main bearing clearances. About an hour later the mail arrived and with it, Bill's (Strupgolf on the Board) electric dipstick from Indiana. I posted on another thread that I couldn't find an electric dipstick to heat the block up here in SoCal and could another Pelican brother in the cold parts of the country help me out by buying one and sending it to me and I'd reimburse him. Bill dug one out of his garage and mailed it to me Gratis! Wouldn't take a dime for it or the shipping! Thanks again Bill, you played a big role in this.
Anyway, I stick the electric dipstick in waited a couple of hours, pulled the sparkplugs and it started turning over nicely on the floor with the starter motor. But, I couldn't get any oil pressure. Pondered this for a while and called an old friend who used to sell Aston parts to me and he said "Did you prime the oil pump?" Apparently you have to pack the inside of the pump with grease to get the air out and the grease disolves with the oil. Didn't want to take the oil pump out, (a big deal) so I poured oil down the hose that goes from just after the pump to the oil pressure gauge, a little at a time, about 1/4 quart. Spun it over and got oil pressure.
Here are some pics of my brother and I putting the engine back in, it took about 1/2 hour. Still gotta hook everything up, but its in there. I may be able to get it running tomorrow, if not it'll be several weeks cause I'm going on a couple of business trips.
Bill's electric dipstick.
