Well I tore the motor down last night and the bearings look good. Running the motor for 2 minutes didnt hurt it. I pulled all 7 oil galley plugs and blew 100 PSI air thru all the oil lines. No blockage anywear. I am so confused. Anybody got an idea? The oil pump is a new Melling HV. I had 60 PSI at the gauge. Could it be the pump? Low Volume? Before I tore it down I put in 2 HYD lifters and set them as normal, primed the pump and got no oil thru them either. That's the main reason tore it down. Something has to be wrong somewhere.
How much oil do you have coming out of the lifter bore without a lifter in it while you are priming it? How long do you prime it? How tight are the lifter bores?
I have good flow coming out of the oil galley. I primed it for at least a minute. My drill started to stink..LOL A buddy of mine brought up the lifter size just today. I have no history on the block so someone coud have honed the lifter bores. I mic'ed the lifters i have and they are .874. I see on summit you can get .875 lifters. I'm a machinest so Monday I'll bring home a ID mic and check the lifter bores. It looks like I have oil coming out around the clip in the lifter but it could just as easily be coming out around the OD of the lifter.
Not talking from experience but from researching it I have read that some people have had to spin the pump for quite awhile to get everything primed like 5 minutes. Did you soak lifters in oil before installation? You stated that this oiling problem was there before you changed over cam and lifters so my guess it doesnt have anything to do with the mechanical lifters and problem is in the lifter bore size since it is a 74 block more than likely it has had a few miles on it.
This is an all new motor. 72 Block, 331 rotating kit, new oil pump, new cam and solid lifters. The one thing I didnt do was soak the lifters. I wonder if it would make that much of a differance? I fired the motor for about 2 minutes and ran it over 2k RPM and still had no oil at the rockers. So I got worried. Thats when I started digging into it.
Running a drill motor backwards at ~1400 RPM will prime a bone dry (filter and all) 351w in about 5 seconds. 1400 at the oil pump is 2800 engine RPM (pump spins half crankshaft speed). In 2 minutes it should have oil everywhere. I'm interested to know what the issue is with it.
If you're getting 60 PSI while priming I guess everything is good up to the oil pressure sensor. When I primed my 5.0 after rebuild I didn't check the pressure but oil got the rocker arms in seconds. But that was with hydraulic lifters. Edit: And, I did prime the lifters.
Well I may have found part of the problem. i have .0025 lifter clearance. my lifter bore size is .8765 on all bores. i think i should have the .875 dia lifters not the .874 that i have. i'm on hold with Comp now.
