I thought I’d be firing my engine yesterday, but a no crank gremlin showed up, so believe I have it narrowed down to a faulty ignition switch. Anyway, I spun the oil drive shaft with a drill till I got oil at most rocker arms, then went about an 8th turn at a time and went around 2 crank rotations, giving it 30 seconds to a minute after each rotation. I noticed when done that some lifters had seemed to pump up fine as the rockers lifted way up on the cam lobe, while others barely moved, if at all. Will these lazy ones pump up on engine fire up, or do I have to spin that oil drive till they all do? ‘62 Mercury 260 Thanks
The lazy ones should pump up as the forces when just spinning over at low rpm is just not enough to really make them do their job. You have pre lubed it so you have oil where it needs to go with the drill. Just give it hell and fire it up, it should make a smidge of noise at first then shut up fast. 30 seconds running is longest I have ever seen on lifters taking to pump up.
Does the engine require a priming tool/modified distributor like a Chevy does and is that what was used?
If you saw good oil pressure (and felt the drill "pull" hard) those lifters will fill right away when started. No worries.
The way I pre-lubed my race engines was to push the car off with no plugs in the engine (sprint cars are push start). That way there is very little force on the bearings and I use plenty of lube during assembly. Once I saw oil pressure, I stopped the car, put the plugs in, push off again and fire the engine. On the last couple of street car engines I built, I used a speed handle to prime the system. Once I feel the pump build pressure, I look for some oil in the valve train. I also like to spin the engine over with the starter and no spark plugs before the first start.
Thanks guys. Just being cautious because of the HFT cam/lifter failures I read about, figured I’d do everything I could that’s under my control. I had oil at all 16 rockers before I finished, and yes, I could definitely feel the resistance in the drill soon after I started. I may have overdone it a little as I got a puff of smoke out of one of the drills, so slowed it down and alternated with another drill I had.
It makes it a two man job. But I like the idea of having one person manning the drill motor driving the pump and a second pair of hands slowly turning the crank by hand with a breaker bar. It's reassuring to hear the oil bubbling and gurgling thru the engine as all the various oil passages and associated oil ports line up and purge all the air out of the system. Give me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
On my last build an OT BMC A series engine there’s no way to drive the oil pump independently so everything was filled up and pre lubed and the cam and lifters get a liberal coating of cam lube. With spark plugs removed the engine is cranked until oil pressure is up on the gauge now it’s good to start. Untold numbers of these engines have been rebuilt and pre lubed in this manner with out any failures. So IMHO if you get resistance when pre lubing with a drill , then remove plugs and crank until you have oil pressure at the gauge you should be good to go. Dan
I have always primed hydraulic lifters before installing them. In fact, back when the earth was still cooling it was standard practice. Stand the lifters in a pan of oil to cover them and poke the plunger up and down until the bubbles quit coming out and the plunger gets harder to push. All pre-lubed and ready to go. Very rarely did we get a stubborn lifter that refused to pump up. A lot of the old engines had no way to pre lube an engine. Flathead Fords, for instance. Just leave the plugs out and pull the coil wire and spin it over with the starter until you get oil pressure. Another little thing that needs to be observed is absolute cleanliness when working with hydraulic lifters. Any tiny speck of dirt, or even lint from a wiping rag can cause them not to work.
I just fired up a Pontiac this weekend, I prelude with drill motor while turning the crank slowly. I made two revolutions from TDC with 60 PSI oil pressure showing on the gauge. Dropped in the points distributor, primed the carburetor, checked for fuel, and hit the push button starter. It hit about second cylinder, went right to 1900 rpm and ran for 20 minutes. A good carburetor with working fast idle, and a well adjusted distributor makes the job much easier.
With the drill running, bridge the battery+ and S terminals on the solenoid. Bump the engine to turn it a little. Run the drill more. Repeat as necessary.
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