Bad oil pump???
 

I finally got around to doing some more work on the car and i decided to prime the oil system for the first start cosidering i just need to put the headers on. This is a crate pre-86 350. Took a low speed run of the mill drill and a distributer less the gear and set the drill to turn the dist. clockwise as it would turn when the engine is started. I started the drill off slowly and noticed that it took steadily more power to keep it running untill the drill eventually came to a halt and started smoking. Obviously that wasnt going to work. I dint even see any oil in the heads. Now, i know oil is pretty viscous at room temperature but this seems insane! Is it really supposed to be this hard to turn an oil pump at low speeds??? Or am i looking at an oiling problem.

How old and how powerful is your drill motor?
I use a 1/2" drill myself, and let it turn full speed and it will turn slower after the pump primes and starts to pressurize the oiling system.
Hook up a mechanical guage at the oil pressure port and turn the pump again to see what kind of pressure the pump is making.

Sounds about right. Unless the crank and cam are turning, you're not going to get oil thru every single passage and definitely not up into the heads unless the lifters are being moved.

If you got pump resistance, and from the sound of your drill smoking I'd say that's the case, you're all set. I use a $19 mechanical oil pressure gauge screwed in where the pressure sending unit goes at the back of the block behind the intake. This shows how much pressure you're building.

thats a relife... I never knew it took so much torque on the pump to move cold oil... Its probably good to go like you said...Ill duck out and get a gauge. The drill itself is supposed to be an 800 watt peak but its a noname so it probably puts out half that.