priming oil pump

[K5Chris]

im trying to prime my 350, and cant seem to get any oil to come out of the pushrods. its got an oil cooler, i cracked both lines going into and comming out of the oil filter adapter/oil cooler line thing, and i got oil comming out of both lines. every other 350 ive primed, has been able to push oil out the pusrods. any suggestions?

 

[BadBob]

try rotating the engine while you're priming

 

[misterfnygy]

never really heard of that but- there is a plug under the rear main bearing in the block. It blocks a passage between the filter in/out. If it is missing you may not get oil up to the top of the block. This is usually installed by the machine shop when doing a rebuild but some home builders may forget it.

 

[JEBSR]

try rotating the engine while you're priming

X2 I've had this happen several times. Especially when using a low powered drill.

 

[b454rat]

Did you soak the lifters, or spin it enough to pump up the lifters?? I built many an engine and some times it takes awhile for the oil to come out of the rockers.

 

[K5Chris]

only thing i did to the engine this time was pull the intake and oil pan..... its got about 20k miles on it since i built it, its been sitting for several months and i flushed the oil cooler....... i just wanted to make sure she was good and lubed up before i started it, and i figured since i hadn't put the distributor in yet, might as well prime it. i will try rotating it see if that helps, if not, i'll prolly just crank it up, im sure it'll be fine. (i know i'm getting oil to the top..... first time i went to prime it, i had forgot to put the oil pressure sending unit in first... haha.... old faithful ) i was just concerned as to why it wasnt comming out the pushrods.