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i recently changed the oil pump on my 72 sb and have read that i should prime the pump by pulling the distributor and turning the shaft thru the dist. hole with a long screwdriver shaft and connected to a power drill. my question is while priming the pump, will the force of the drill pressure pump the oil up thru the block and up under the valve covers and over the rocker arms, etc.? any info on this subject would be great thanx!!!
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Re: priming oil pump after change
you need a primer that duplicates the distributor housing because it is needed to seal up the hole in the lifter oil gallery. with just a screwdriver type primer the oil will just run back into the oil pan without reaching the lifters. -
Re: priming oil pump after change
thanx again Clem, is this type of primer readily available or is it a specialty type item. i just want to make sure that the pump is working correctly. i have tried priming with the drill and screwdriver setup but the oil never got up to the heads and i figured just what you stated that it does not have enough stregnth to get up there. so ive set out to find a more reliable way to find out if it is working correctly. before i pulled the distributor out, i pulled the left side valve cover and started the engine and no oil was present coming up thru the block. so this left me wondering if the pump was working correctly. i also removed the fitting on the back of the block that connects to the oil pressure gauge and the oil shot up out the hole when i started the engine. i am also not sure if the oil gauge is working correctly so i was hesitant to use that as a indicator that the pump was working correctly. thanx again for any info.Comment
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Re: priming oil pump after change
When I primed the oil pump on my 69, I used the screwdriver type tool and primmed the engine with that. Before the body was put on (I was doing a body off resto), I primmed it and I had the oil come out of the hole where the oil line goes into. Oil line was disconnected. Got oil everywhere!! Anyway, I was told that that was a good indication that the oil pump was working!! I am curious as to why Clem states that it will not oil the lifters. I was thinking that was why you primmed the engine.
Clem - can you elaborate on why you feel that it doesn't oil the lifters for my own curiousity?
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Re: priming oil pump after change
if you look at the hole in the block where the distributor passes thru you will see it intersects the passenger side oil gallery. the distributor housing forms a seal in this bore. the groove in the distributor housing forms the passage for the oil to reach the lifters. without this seal to the lifter gallery you also will not develop full oil pressure as the oil is just running back into the oil panComment
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making the correct primer
just take a chevy distributor and remove the teeth from the gear. fabricate a way of turning the shaft from the top. you can just braze a nut on top of the shaft and use this nut to turn the primer with a speed wrench and socketComment
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Re: making the correct primer
Thanks Clem, I am not a mechanic by far and didn't know this. Thanks for the information.Comment
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Re: making the correct primer
Kelly - if you don't want to fabricate your own from an old distributor as Clem suggests, you can buy these priming tools for about $22 or so at places like Summit Racing....CraigComment
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Re: making the correct primer
Here's the tool I use, made by Tavia (Summit/Jeg's have them); note the spool near the bottom that duplicates the shape at the bottom of the adjacent distributor; the groove inbetween the two machined surfaces forms the sealed oil passage that Clem referred to. Without this formation, oil from the pump just runs out of the passages in the block and dumps back into the pan.
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word to the wise
i have never used this type of a primer and i do not know if this applies to it but some do not have a way to limit the downward pressure when using the primer and could cause the driven gear in the pump to be forced into the pump cover and causing some gouging of the cover plate. if you use a converted distributor this is not a problem because the intake manifold will limit the depth the distributor can go into the engine. if you do not have a converted distributor do not apply downward pressure to the primer when priming the engineComment
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Re: word to the wise
Good point Clem...makes total sense.....CraigComment
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