oil priming ?? getting ready to fire up...

[ty901]

engine is a '75 2.7L freshly built and the car has front coolers.
I have access to an oil pot and want to charge as much of the system as possible prior to cranking.
not sure where to start and what to do after that ?
do I hook up the pot and keep pumping until the reservoir is full ??
all help appreciated.

[Trackrash]

Put 10 quarts in the tank.

With the plugs out, crank the motor until you have oil pressure.

Check the level in the tank. You may need to add a quart or two.

Replace plugs and start the motor.

Monitor the oil level.

[RedCoupe]

Fill the oil tank, but wait a bit for it to flow down to the oil pump.

[gsxrken]

I wouldn't bother pulling the plugs, although maybe on a non turbo it’s not a big deal. You’ll get different opinions but Ignition systems don’t like not firing to ground.

But I would pull the fuel pump relays while cranking to avoid washing down your new rings and oil.

[targa72e]

I am with trackrash fill tank. pull plugs crank until you have pressure. pull power from fuel system and ignition (don't want to blow fuel out spark plug hole and set it on fire). no need to wait a bit for oil to flow to pump as the pump is the only thing keeping oil in the tank.

john

[ty901]

that's good enough for me! thanks all.

[Mark Henry]

I'm a builder and I don't pre-charge, I want it to fire up and have full pressure ASAP.

The cooler lines don't need to be primed, dry sump so oil feed comes from the tank, but you do have watch the oil level.

[Walt Fricke]

Crack a fitting on one of the cam oil lines - like where the pressure tensioner line Ts off. Crank without ignition/fuel until you see oil coming out where you cracked the fitting. Tighten and fire it up.

You can see the oil pressure needle move a little bit doing this non-starting cranking too. But seeing that oil means the main galleries are full, and you are looking right at it if you use a clip on remote starter button to do the turning with the engine bay open. Your cams have plenty of assembly lube on them already, right, from the rebuild? That will do fine for the few seconds more it takes a running engine to start spraying the cams.

[ty901]

I don't know if I've left out anything important, but the oil reservoir is from a '72.

it's been a while but here's what's happened in the meantime during lots of other activity on the project;
put 8 quarts in the reservoir maybe two weeks ago. gauge barely reads off "zero" but I know not to trust the gauge. visually the reservoir looks about half - 2/3 full.
checking later (...a week later ? don't recall) the level visually looks to have dropped.
added 2 more quarts guessing that the oil is going into the 25 or feet or so of hose between the reservoir and coolers.
level still does not come up in the reservoir. added 2 more quarts (now a total of 12)
still no increase in the reservoir level.
under the car for something unrelated to startup I notice a small puddle of oil, but can't tell exactly where it's coming from. decide to pop the oil drain plug and am greeted with 8 quarts of oil. (guess where all that oil was going ? )
replaced the drain plug and put 4 quarts of oil in the reservoir. dip stick shows half way between the high and low marks.

pulled plugs, cracked cam tower feed lines, disconnected fuel pump and coil. did not pre-charge the system.
cranked several times about 10 seconds each, but no oil pressure. not even getting tiny blips on the O/P gauge.
checked oil filter just for grins ... it's dry.

)pic of oil leak)

[winders]

I always prime the system with a new engine build. On my race car, I have the added issue of the oil tank being in the front of the car with a long hose to fill to get back to the feed the engine. That hose can trap air so I jack the front of the car up so the bottom of the oil tank is much higher than the bottom of the engine. I don't remove the spark plugs. My car is wired so I can crank the engine with the ignition system and fuel pump off. I will crank the engine over for quite a while. I watch oil levels in the tank to see that oil is making it through the engine. I keep cranking until the oil level stabilizes in the tank as that tells me the system is fully primed. Then I am ready to start her up.

My battery and starter are strong enough that I never even think about the hassle of removing plugs.

[stownsen914]

As you saw, the level in the tank will drop after sitting a while due to gravity leakage through the oil pump into the engine.

Several cranks of 10 secs might not have been enough for the scavenge pump to move enough oil through the circuit and back to the tank (where the filter is). This wouldn't be related to the oil pressure issue since the pressure is measured in the pressure circuit. Maybe try a mechanical pressure gauge?

Edit - you could also do as Walt suggested. If oil gets that far, you should get oil pressure when it fires up.

[boyt911sc]

Jerry,

12 quarts are too much oil for your motor unless you have a large front auxiliary cooler. Install a mechanical pressure gauge and check your oil pressure before running it. I would never run a newly rebuilt motor without confirming the presence of sufficient oil pressure.

This is like jumping out of the plane without checking your parachute. You don’t want to check it on your way down. Better to err on the side of cautious than regret later. Make your choice. This is your motor and not ours. Keep us posted.

Tony

[Martinlassmann]

Take out the oilsensor in the clutch side and with a big syringe press 1 quarter in the system.
In my case 74 Engine the Pressure was there at once.
Good luck
Martin

[Fever]

Just start it without ignition, until you see press on the gauge.
Jay.

[Tyson Schmidt]

I wouldn’t worry too much about not seeing the pressure gauge rise while cranking. They are not very accurate at low pressure and low crank speeds. Once you fire it up, the gauge will jump up.
I’ve been there, had that worry many times.

[Trackrash]

Pull the left intake valve cover. Crank the motor. If oil is squirting out of the cam oil tube, you are good to go.

[ty901]

I borrowed my buddy's oil pot (AKA a repurposed fire extinguisher) and modified a fitting that usually lives between the case and oil pressure sender. hooked everything up and 2 quick squeezes of the oil pot handle had oil at the cam tower fittings. closed those off and gave it another couple of squeezes. (this setup moves oil in a hurry!)
tried the starter, still no pressure on the gauge, but I'm feeling more comfortable about attempting a start up.
after changing the fuel filter a couple of times ... damn! I knew there was something I was forgetting... we get...
no spark.
hmmm...
MSD 6A purchased in the classifieds here as "...new never mounted..." OK no wires cut, no smell of smoke... hooked up per the instructions online. (one question mark which I will post separately as it's not directly related to the mechanical operation)
fortunately my brother was "helping" ... actually it was the other way around.
I had enough stuff on the shelf to switch to a conventional coil / condenser setup and
voila! it runs! ...and sounds OK. we couldn't get it to idle nor run long, but I'm confident that those issues can be resolved.

the fuel tank goes to the radiator shop tomorrow. change out *another* fuel filter. open up the pump and check there as well.

minor bad news: the O/P sender is junk. another one is on the way.
the tach does not indicate RPM. it does bounce slightly when the key is turned on. I presume this is owing to the fact that it's in the bypassed MSD circuit.

I'll post my MSD question(s) in another post. thanks for all the input and encouragement.