Oil Pump Priming Secrets

[the moosehunter]

After 2 months of re-building, the little beauty started up yesterday

Alas with nil oil pressure

I had filled the new filter with oil prior to starting and have cranked it over quite a bit, but still nothing

Tried to crank it over without the filter on to see if anything would come out of the housing but nothing was forthcoming. The filter though had just about emptied itself, so re-filled and tried again.

Oil light flickers but does not go out and nothing on the gauge.

Flat battery brought a halt to proceedings but should be fully charged tonight as is the spare Range Rover Battery ready to connect in series.
Have also jacked the rear end up a bit hoping gravity may help in the pump.

Any handy tips from anyone who's been here

Engine is 2001 5ltr Serp

Thanks Chaps

Moose

[cre]

If its a serp engine you need to start it! It WILL prime unless you have missed something dramatic from the rebuild...ie oil pump gears!

HTH

Jamie

[red griff 500]

I thought that none of the variants of this engine self-primed. I'd be very cautious about starting the engine hoping that the pressure will appear, especially as you've said that the filter emptied, because it means that the pump is not pulling the oil from the sump to fill the filter. I reckon you may have to use the vaseline mwethod (I think this is described in The Bible?).

[spend]

red griff 500 said:

I thought that none of the variants of this engine self-primed. I'd be very cautious about starting the engine hoping that the pressure will appear, especially as you've said that the filter emptied, because it means that the pump is not pulling the oil from the sump to fill the filter. I reckon you may have to use the vaseline mwethod (I think this is described in The Bible?).

I would take CRE's advice as read - in this case certainly over the bible (the section you describe is for the pre-serp engine IIRC)

Dave

[shpub]

It does say on page 44 that for serpentine engines that packing with vaseline or starting the motor/turning over hard with no spark plugs is the only way of getting these to go. They can either be easy or real swines...

[simon.b]

Mines a 97 serp and after an oil change (done many over the years) I always fill a new filter with oil and quickly re-fit it before too much spills. On start-up there’s always that hart stopping second or two and then up comes the pressure.

Now this may be different to a clean rebuild and I don’t know how much oil drains from the pump during an oil change, but as advised by Steve I don’t hang about.

Cheers,

Simon.

[350matt]

you could try removing the filter and pumping a load of oil in there with an oil can


the engine that is, not the filter

Matt

Edited by 350matt on Monday 30th April 13:34

[spend]

Out of interest is it possible to prime by pumping thru the oil pressure switch/sender tappings - that would seem a lot easier than removing the filter (messy). Theoretically a pipe held up with a funnel on the end & gravity should do the trick (I'm sure I saw a link about this ages ago - but cant rediscover it!).

Dave
PS sorry for the misquote Steve I thought all things were hunkydory in the serp world - nothing is B&W tho

[dnb]

shpub said:

They can either be easy or real swines...

That statement seems to cover the whole of the car...

Thankfully my oil pump has always been one of the easy ones. I wonder what it'll be like when I get the engine back together.

[the moosehunter]

cre said:

If its a serp engine you need to start it! It WILL prime unless you have missed something dramatic from the rebuild...ie oil pump gears!

HTH

Jamie

Cheers for the input guys. It's definately a Serp.

How long would you expect th "It WILL prime" approach to take ? How long before damage occurs ??

Will try the "pump oil into the pump" approach first and re-fil the filter. Do you pump it into the centre or around the edges ? (not sure of the passage of oil, as I didn't dremove the timing cover. It was the only bit I din't touch)

May also try the removing the sender option

Fingers crossed

Any further ideas welcome

[cre]

I would expect it to prime in generally less than 5 seconds, (you can always tell cos the lifters go quiet), I have no issues running it for this time BUT I do use a very high quality build lubricant when I rebuild them. I suspect that I could run for some time on this but in all honesty have never been brave enough to put that to the test!

Its always scary to fire up a new motor at the best of times, never mind worrying about oil p.

Best thing to do.....


Stick your fingers in your ears and get someone else to fire it

Jamie

[ozstyle]

Hi,
sounds that maybe the oil has drained from your pump rotors over the 2 months causing the lack of suction/pumping force to draw oil up from the sump. When I recently changed my camshaft I poured oil into the pump rotors via a drilling in the front cover to prime the pump. I spun my motor over on the starter but could not get the oil pressure light to go out. Put the plugs in and fired it up, got oil pressure instantly.

[Pasco]

Am i dreaming or can you get a tool that lets you feed oil down the dizzy hole to help priming or am i talking O O M A

[shpub]

Pasco said:

Am i dreaming or can you get a tool that lets you feed oil down the dizzy hole to help priming or am i talking O O M A

The tool is called a funnel.....

You are probably thinking of the pre serp tool that is powered by an electric drill to turn the oil pump to prime it without turning the engine over. Not applicable on a serp engine.

[Pasco]

shpub said:

Pasco said:

Am i dreaming or can you get a tool that lets you feed oil down the dizzy hole to help priming or am i talking O O M A

The tool is called a funnel.....

You are probably thinking of the pre serp tool that is powered by an electric drill to turn the oil pump to prime it without turning the engine over. Not applicable on a serp engine.

Cheers Steve for that

[GreenV8S]

Pasco said:

Am i dreaming or can you get a tool that lets you feed oil down the dizzy hole to help priming or am i talking O O M A

Yes that would probably work, but I think you would need five or six gallons of oil and you might find the engine rather sluggish to turn over afterwards ...

[Pasco]

GreenV8S said:

Pasco said:

Am i dreaming or can you get a tool that lets you feed oil down the dizzy hole to help priming or am i talking O O M A

Yes that would probably work, but I think you would need five or six gallons of oil and you might find the engine rather sluggish to turn over afterwards ...

Ok Peter you Big Head

[That Daddy]

Shame its not like the old Ford Essex unit 8mm socket on the oil pump hex drive with the distributor removed rotate quickly with your index finger on the 1/4 drive ratchet,hey presto oil pressure, enough to register on the gauge ready to fire up,fond memories of that lump bloody heavy thoughnot much use this reply is it

[Pasco]

[spend]

That GreatGrandDaddy said:

Shame its not like the old Ford Essex unit 8mm socket on the oil pump hex drive with the distributor removed rotate quickly with your index finger on the 1/4 drive ratchet,hey presto oil pressure, enough to register on the gauge ready to fire up,fond memories of that lump bloody heavy thoughnot much use this reply is it

Oh God! Hasty exit - "I remember during the war...."'s coming

Dave