Hi guys, I just finished building my 427 bbc for my 69 project. Everything is adjusted and buttoned up. I bought an oil pump priming shaft that fits in your drill to spin the oil pump thru the distributor hole.
I installed the oil filter and filled the crankcase, put the shaft in my drill and started spinning the oil pump. It started off with no tension and quickly built up some pretty good tension on the spin.
The engine was cold of course. I could not get any oil to come out the pushrods/rockers but the oil filter was filled completely.
I never used one of these before. Should i actually see oil come out the rockers (if so how long must it spin) or is it just to prime the system?
Thanks in advance.
Jeff Z

Have you hooked up a pressure gauge to see how much you are pressurizing?
Years ago I primed my sbc and did not get oil up to the rockers but when I started it up with movement everthing was ok.

Jeff,
Is the tool you purchased just a small shaft that spins the pump ? If so you will never get oil to the rockers. You need a tool that has a collar to simulate the bottom of the distributor housing. The distributor housing actually seals up one of the lifter galleys.

This is what the tool should look like:
http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...54806_-1_10455

I just did my 502 a couple weeks ago, it took 2 or 3 min. to get oil up to most of the pushrods, but 5 or 10 to get it to all of them, make sure it gets up to all of the pushrods, at least that is what I have been told. I used to start new motors without priming at all but I have been priming every motor for the last 15 years. Also, turn the crank over by hand while spinning the pump, this will uncover any crankshaft passages that may be blocked because they are not lined up with the grooves in the upper bearings.

1) use the tool that has the collar
2) hook an oil pressure guage up to the front oil galley lh side of motor near where the PS pump would mount
3) spin the priming tool, looking for pressure on the guage
4) when you get pressure, stop and rotate the motor 90 degrees or so
5) repeat for at lest one full revolution
6) replace distributor
7) spin motor with starter, you should have good pressure after 2 revolutions or so
8) if you remove the valve covers, you should have oil to the rockers, but that does depend on things like lifter type, etc
9) it should be safe to start the motor and you should have immediate oil pressure.

Thanks a lot everyone.
I just have the tool with the shaft and collar not the one with the block off.
I will turn the motor over while priming and run the primer a little longer. I only ran it for about a minute.
I just wanted to make sure this was relatively normal results.
Thanks again
Jeff Z.

Jeff,
You really should get the correct tool. Without it you will never get full oil pressure to the bearings etc. If you look down in the hole where the distributor goes while you are running the tool you have, you will see a massive gusher of oil ..... that is where all of the oil is going, right back into the pan instead of to the bearings etc

Thanks Bill, yes that is what I saw.
I will order the other tool with my next Summit order.
Thanks
Jeff Z