Oil Pump Prime tools

[Cadillacin Marcus]

What did you guys use on your Non Chevy V8's to prime your oil pumps..I got to do this Caddy 331...I was thinking I could just hack a screwdriver up and use it in the chuck of my drill..

[draggin'GTO]

On my Pontiac V8s I use an old junk points distributor for a priming tool. I ground all the teeth off of the distributor drive gear and removed the top advance weight plate so I could attach my 1/2" drill motor. Works great, in my case I have to use the drill in reverse since the Poncho distributor rotates counter-clockwise.

[yorgatron]

on my olds i had a spare dist. that i ground the gear down and spun with a drill.on the '61 cad i had no spare,so i pulled the spark plugs,turned it over with a wrench a couple times,then spun with the starter until the pressure came up-george

[Cadillacin Marcus]

Is that safe to do Yorg,this is a fresh engine,it has assembly lube in it.. but...??? If that works thatlooks like thats the only option here...how long did it take to get oil pressure like that???

[Deuce Roadster]

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif


If the Caddy has been built for a long time...and not cranked.........I would find me another distributor and grind the teeth off.......

Better Safe than sorry..

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Cadillacin Marcus]

The thing with the Cad distributors are that the cam gears are not part of the distributor when you pull the dissy out the cam gear stays in the engine..So I'm guessing I could pull the cam gear out of the engine also and maybe use a Chevy prime tool..but I'm not certain....Shit!!

[draggin'GTO]

The whole point of pre-lubing a fresh engine is to get oil to all the bearings before you turn it over. Turning the engine with the starter to get oil pressure is very hard on the dry bearings. Plus you don't want to wipe all of the cam lube off of the cam lobes with excessive cranking, you want the engine to fire off quickly with a new cam inside it. Make a tool. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[yorgatron]

if there's assembly lube in there it will protect the bearings enjough IF you don't have the engine firing.cranking it with the starter is relatively low speed,and probably wouldn't even wash the lube off the cam lobes.with the sparkplugs removed you would have zero compression,so the assembly lube will be enough to protect against the small amount of friction generated by rotating.

[TagMan]

I made up the tool (pics below) for spinning the oil pump on a 389 Poncho rebuild I did recently. I turned the shaft and filed a edge on one end to mate with the slot on the pump. I then drilled out a slightly larger piece to act as a retainer collar, so as to prevent the tool from disengaging the slot and welded it on the shaft. Worked great.

http://home.rochester.rr.com/mrplates/prime2.jpg

http://home.rochester.rr.com/mrplates/prime1.jpg

[Cadillacin Marcus]

Damn thats cool..I wish I possesed the Mc Gyver Skills that some of you have... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[fab32]

When priming a fresh engine I also build pressure at one point then rotate the engine 90 degrees and prime again. Repeat this 8 times and you've given all of the lifters and crank pins a shot at oil pressure. On Chevys (and I suspect others) you'll get oil out of all the pushrods with this method ensuring everything has gotten oil before firing it up.

Frank

[JOECOOL]

I use a junk ass electric fuel pump and back flow it thru the gauge port. You need a reasonably light oil and I just hook it up and go off and do something else. Usually it will put a quart in in 10 minutes or less. I guess you could use a manual fuel pump and run it with a vise grip. never tried that.
I don't know about your Caddy but small Chebbys have an oil passage that the Distributer blocks off ,so if you do it with out the distirutor it doesn't ever make it to the top end.

[28pontiac]

I made a tool for my Buick 300cu.in. V-8 similar to Tagman's... except I used a piece of tubing and drilled a hole thru the side of it, and then pressed in a split pin to drive the pump shaft. When I had my Olds 330, I used a piece of hex-stock.

necessity is the mother of invention...

Andy