EVERY new/rebuilt engine I have had 'dealings-with'....when firing up for the first time (to break-in the camshaft) I ALWAYS primed the oil system with an oil pump primer! (Home-made job out of an old distributor) Spun it with a drill motor until oil came outta ALL push rods. I don't want to turn the camshaft over and over and possibly rub off the lube. So why do some guys like to spin the engine (and the entire valve train) over until they get oil pressure? IF that's the case ....why not just fire it up from the get-go?? I thought the whole point was to get the engine galleries full (PRIMED) with oil BEFORE the cam and valve train was spun over. What am I missing?? 6sally6
I definitely prime them first if possible. I'm about to wrap up a new engine build on an Off Topic air-cooled German vehicle, and the oil pump is run off the end of the camshaft, so pre-priming is not possible. I'm going to spin the motor over without the plugs in and rocker shafts off to get oil pressure first. That won't put any load on the cam, then I put the rocker shafts on and plugs back in, then fire up for cam break in.
Prime hydraulic lifters? Lube top end? I do both, spin oil pump with oil pump primer made from old distributor And rotate engine by hand at crank snout to align oil gallerys in cam That's on early Olds engines
I recently worked on an old off topic engine, that you can't turn the oil pump without turning the engine. I just didn't install the rocker shaft until I got it pumping oil.
Spinning the engine applies almost as much pressure to the cam as a running engine does, and it wipes all the lubrication off that you applied before it starts so when it does starts you have even less protection.
Plenty of ***embly lube , In oil pump (i take apart b4 installation )main , rods ,came & so on. Then I prime with oil priming tool so oiling Circuit is complete, ( steady oil pressure maintaining) Slowly rotate engine by hand 760 degs while continuously priming / spinning oil pump . I do this because where cross drilling of oil p***ages on crank & as lifters move up & down oil flows across up galleys completing oil p***ages, I make sure be for start up t******* is set carb primed Valve already adjust , Solid or hydraulic Also in some cases when not able to spin oil pump for priming , I have tapped into a oil Galli and pressurized oil system with it a external oil pump that I've made or sometimes used dry sump pump
No, nothing missed. I wonder how many get lucky, probably most I suspect, the unfortunates start internet posts with 'my newly rebuilt motor......' Chris
I like to pre-lube using a pressurized bottle of oil connected to the pressure gage fitting or some other direct connection to the engine oil p***ages. Just do not over fill the sump with the oil you inject.
You CAN pump oil thru many engines by using a dummy shaft to drive the oil pump. In some cases there are still problems with getting oil ****ed into the pump so it can push thru the engines p***ages. A tank with oil in it can be pressurized with air and attached to an oil gallery. Most engines are going to have a threaded plug or two somewhere in the oiling system. That will get the oil circulated no matter how the oil pump is driven. Another method is to put a pump in a 5 gallon bucket and drive it with a drill. Always bestus to get the galleries and lifters full of oil before actually cranking the engine with the starter. I'll attach an edited article that was done for a non-Hamb-friendly engine. Hopefully I got all the offensive stuff off of it and there is enough of the basic information left to show everyone how they can pre-lube virtually any engine. You will need to make some adapters to suit your type of engine. Pick your way thru it and hopefully there is sufficient info there.
I ***emble everything lubricated. I pour oil over the rockers before I put the pans on. Everything that needs oil, has it. Then I fire up my engine and look at the oil pressure gauge. No oil pressure=bad, oil pressure=good. Leave it to a body guy to build an engine
For those engines that you can’t easily prime I use a pressurized aluminum tank with the hose from the tank screwed into the oil pressure sender hole . I purchased the tank from Summit for some where around $150 . It works great .
I put white grease on the bearings, dip the pistons in STP or Lucas before I put them in, a dollop of white grease on the ends of the pushrods and on the rockers. Fire it up and like Lloyd, watch the oil pressure gauge. Never had any problems doing one that way.
Same method here. The engine in my avatar gets spun to 6500 and last engine did a couple of hundred p***es before breaking a crank through number 6 journal.
I know I'm a weirdo, and not a professional engine builder, but if it's freshly ***embled, and you lubricated every metal contact point on ***embly, why do you need to prime it? If i put one together and it sat for any period of time, allowing lubrication to run off, I'd probably prime it. I'm gonna piss a bunch of you off with this next statement, but I think most people over think a lot of stuff.
no they dont I toured the S-10 plant and watched as they get to the end of the ***embly line and started them and drove them away. No break in time either. No running a new engine at 2000 RPM for 20 minutes either
I used a portable air tank with a valve and fittings to inject oil into the oil galley on my Rambler 196. Fill the air tank with oil pressurise the tank.Then connect to the oil galley with hose etc. I held the tank outlet down and watched for oil at the rockers. Nick
@Darin Younce started a thread back on September 14, 2020 about this very subject and a flathead he built. There are a lot of interesting comments by those who replied. Here's the link to it: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/posts/13745174/
You gotta pour oil over your rockers in a grey. The rockers are fed off a groove in the cam. The groove is only cut into 1/3 of the cam periphery. If the cam is not in the right spot, the rockers don't get oil if you use the "spin the pump with a drill" method. Only a 33% chance that the groove is lined up (and knowing my luck, no way it would line up ). Cheers, Harv
To the original question, What are you missing? the chance to change out a badly damaged cam due to off shore parts and lack of oil, thats what you are missing!
Not ******* me off, I respect your opinions. I have a brand new Chevy (off topic) crate engine that I bought several years ago and due to some changes in plans it has sat.......in the crate and then in the vehicle that I ultimately put it in. Vehicle is about 80% done. Anyway, I paid about $7K for the motor. Before I fire it up the first time, the plugs will be pulled and some oil squirted in, and I will prelube the internals. Its worth it to me for some piece of mind. Then I have a 500 Cad that I plan to blueprint when I build it. I will have/have quite a bit of money in it even though I have the tools to do all the proper measurement and ***embly myself. If I can ***ure that some air does not get trapped somewhere during the initial startup and the lifters are properly lubed and full of oil, then again with all the time, effort, and money I will have involved.......its worth it to take that one last precaution. If I'm putting together a simple low dollar engine using mostly existing components and generally taking bearing specs at stated value, then I'd probably just pull the coil wire out and crank till I got pressure. I've seen lots of engines done just that way and no known problems occurred. Many people talk about wiping their cams out, but lack of oil in the rods or mains can create an immediate problem or a problem that shows up later. The intial wiping of the cam will require new lifters as well as a cam.........but also complete dis***embly and cleaning of the engines internals. Its like most things in life, you roll the dice and some win and some don't. Even the people who take the extra steps to pre-lube sometimes end up with a problem..... One additional comment: A well known guy who specializes in Cad engines recently purchased a new roller camshaft for a Cad engine. He is detail oriented and checks everything. Turns out that the cam was way off from the quoted spec but luckily he was able to retard it sufficiently to get it where he wanted things. Luckily he took the time to verify things. The thing I have found in life (as related to me personally) is that if I take a shortcut , it usually bites me later. I have always been jealous of the guys who seem to be able to fix something quickly with minimal tools and it works just fine. Me, I have to use every tool known to mankind to fix even simple things, and it takes me more time to put my tools away than it took them to fix the thing. Don't know if I'm cursed or blessed
But they ALL have been “run” on a test station prior to being installed …Manufacturers are not stupid.
When purchasing a crate engine, it is always a good idea to let who ever built the engine dyno it for you before shipping. It cost extra money, but I have seen many people not prime the engine correctly, and it cost them big money to fix it. Plus, when they dyno it, they are setting the timing and carb. Settings, which makes things easy when you receive the engine and install it. Just my opinion. Jimbo
Those engines are likely cold tested, most major manufacturers do so. Oil system circulated, engine spun, cylinder sealing checked along with a lot of other diagnostics. Just no fuel. I use to run a cold test area at a major manuf for engines. It was part of the engine ***embly line. Ours received cold and hot test *running* before being shipped to vehicle install.
And years ago when a GM product would wipe a cam all the dealer did was put a cam and lifters in it .
I believe this happened when the cut line in the rods were no longer there. The rod bearing kept the 1/2 hole in each shell but the rod no longer added oil to the cylinder wall or cam. As time went on I started doubling the side clearance on rods in the crank throws. I’ve never had a cam problem since.
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