CamarosRUS

My motor is on the stand ready to go in. I put about 5 qts oil in it and was priming it.

I'm not getting any oil to my heads.

Tonight I was priming it again and now its making a noise. It sounds like the oil pump is clicking/whining. When I cover up the pickup with my hand (pan off) the noise diminishes. This made the noise with oil in the motor and when I pulled the pan to see whats up.

Could this be a bad oil pump or is this type noise normal? There is a small amount of wear on the pump cover from one of the gears.
And, Why am I not getting any oil to my heads? I was priming with my drill for a couple minutes and no oil was coming out of my pushrods. Mech gauge in front by timing cover read 45-50 PSI.

89RsPower!

not sure on the noise but without a dist in and a primer down the hole its almost impossible to get oil to the heads, its like having a massive internal leak

CamarosRUS

I've always heard to prime the pump until you can get oil to the heads. This primer has a part to pressurize the lifter valley and it covers the dist hole.

I'd almost be fine with no oil to the heads when priming if the oil pump wasn't making noise. I also did not recieve any oil to my heads when it was last built and I was priming it just a couple months ago.

CamarosRUS

I pulled the pickup off and tried it again. I just put a screwdriver in there and you can feel the pump pulsate when turned, even slowly. When you cover the pickup hole the noise stops but you can still feel it pulsate.

Any ideas?

rgarcia63

Prime the primer, take some oil out of the pan and pour it in through the heads wait a couple of minutes then spin the primer, the oil pressure you get with a drill motor turning 2500 rpms is pretty close to all you're going to get.

If it does start to flow, stop and let the oil drain down for while then try priming it again, if it doesn't prime on it's own, I'm not sure what to tell you.

I didn't know there was a port up front, is this an aftermarket thing?

ede

the pump will prime when you put oil in the pan. the engine will be primed before the engine starts. if you used assembly lube you don't need to worry about a dry start and if you used assembly lube you'll wash it off with the oil. if you suspect the quality of your work or the machine shops work priming an engine with a drill motor is a smart move.

CamarosRUS

I understand the whole priming issue and the opinions on priming before start and not priming before start. To be honest I am leaning towards the side that priming is a waste BUT it is cheap insurance...this is the first motor I've fully built completely by myself (although I covered everything I could as much as I could with Lubriplate 105).

However, right now thats not the issue. I'm concerned with not getting oil to my heads and the strange noise my oil pump is making. It sounds like its making a popping noise and you can actually feel each time the gears mesh. I do not recall any other oil pumps making this noise ever. But at the same time the SBC oil system is so simple (especially the pump) I don't see what could be wrong.

ede

if you don't like it i'd just buy another, cheap peace of mind. i wouldn't even mess with trying to figure it out, just replace it for less than 25 dollars.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

A nick on a tooth of one of the gears will cause this. If that's what it is, it won't cause a problem, and will likely take care of itself by wearing down in a short time.

I would not worry about whether oil "gets to the heads" or not. Given the oil passage routing in the SBC casting, it's near about impossible, in the real world, for anything short of losing a shop towel in each of 2 oil passages during assembly (2 sponges in the patient!!) to allow pressure to exist at the front of the main oil gallery (where that plug by the TC is located) but not to the lifter galleries (the ones that "get to the heads").

There are things worth worrying about, and then things that aren't. The "oil to the heads" is in the latter category, especially when you can directly measure oil pressure elsewhere, and it's fine.

Look at the pump gears. Chances are, you can find the place where the gears bind, and identify the irregularity, and maybe file or sand it off. You may even find that just taking out the idler gear and turning it 180°, while leaving the driven gear in place, might fix it; by causing different pairs of teeth on each of them to mesh. But like ede said, as cheap as oil pumps are, if you don't like what you see, just change it out.

CamarosRUS

Thanks for the help guys. I had planned on and did go out and buy another M55 when I got my 'correct' knock sensor this morning. For $13.99 its stupid not to, even though the one thats on there is brand new. As far as I'm in $15 is nothing to blink at. I'm not even going to mess with the high pressure spring this time around.