Priming Oil Pump following rebuild

[thechuckster]

is there a gasket (o-ring?) where the pickup pipe bolts onto the upper-sump? I recall some engines using an o-ring which - if left out - lets the pump suck air and thus never prime.

[allencr]

Self-primes easily with some oil in it or a light smear of grease. Don't think there are any that have their pickup port on the bottom & drain completely.
If it was assembled dry it's another story,
It Does Not need to be 'packed' with grease!!!

[lexsmaz]

I hook up an external oil pressure gauge as you have done & unscrew the gauge head & get a good oil can & pump about 4 or 5 cans full of oil back down the oil line, usually works well & you can even build up some pressure sometimes .. As has been said i would be cranking with the spark plugs out too ..

But in saying that i did a Subaru motor some years ago, Reco motor was supplied by the customer & i couldnt get oil pressure either, even doing all the above things, i ended up having to start it up to increase the RPM which i never like doing & it ended up i had to take off the oil filter before i could get any pressure, again only very short running times .. I have tried to think why it came good & have thought of a couple of reasons but not necessarily the correct reason, but it seemed to work ..

[Roundy]

I'm trying to recall, but i am about 99% sure i installed a gasket there.

Will just try the feed from the top and cross fingers.

[jdm86gtz]

Is there any sign of fresh oil up around the head/cams? You could just have a dud oil pressure switch.

I usually only wet the oil pump gears with oil and hand crank a few rotations before bolting down the oil pickup
and never have any drama getting oil pressure before I let an engine fire up.

[andrew_mx83]

how did you go with it?

ive had a dud oil mechanical pressure gauge once, prev motor ate a bearing and must have blocked the line with shit. cranked for ages, got nothing... pulled the line off and got oil squirting out. put idiot light sender back in and she was all sweet.

[Roundy]

oil drip feed.jpg

Have been doing a bit of drip feed, haven't tried to turn it over again yet.

Will give that a crack tomorrow.

The oil has been going down that line however.

Fingers crossed.

[andrew_mx83]

nice!!!!!!!

[blakeg]

haha looks like the car's on a drip.. been drinking too much ethanol haha.

best of luck with it...

[Roundy]

Still no love....

Farken thing, i really REALLY hope i don't have to pull it all apart....

[blakeg]

thats proper shit.... howabout taking the timing belt off and hitting the oil pump with a drill while feeding oil down its gullet ? doesn't sound good though....

[Roundy]

drill on oil pump = engine out....

First thing i am thinking of going is pulling the small part of the 205 sump off to double check pickup.

[blakeg]

no way.. you can get to it engine in.... i did it on my 162. same on the 185.

[andrew_mx83]

i think you are now at that point.

you've tried gravity feeding it and even running the engine for a few seconds.... im worried its simply not gonna come up as is, and all you are doing is wearing all the contact surfaces in your new engine.

pull it out, check all gaskets and pickup tubes etc, check all bearings (having run dry), pack the pump with grease and try again. did you check the clearances in the pump when you did the rebuild?

[lexsmaz]

Where did you end up drip feeding the oil to ?? the oil gallery via the oil pressure switch hole or into the oil filter fitting on the block ..

Another thought is to put in maybe 10 litres ? of oil into the sump, unscrew the oil filter so the pump can breathe / bleed air out & let it sit overnight, hopefully the pump will be completely submerged which will then lubricate it / prime it & then drain oil to correct level & fingers crossed it might work ...