Okay so here's the scoop. I got a firebird with a rebuilt engine and trans removed from the car. The PO said the engine had blown twice. Once from the original equipment/build from the factory, and another from when his engine builder did something wrong and smoked all the pistons within 20 minutes ... So the PO (He's really good with cars, but has limited experience actually building engies) and a few guys rebuilt the engine. He said they hot tanked the block. They took out the rear oil journal plugs and all the freezeplugs and everything.

So he seems to think the engine will run. So I went through and checked through a bunch of the bolts, put on 70% of the accessories and put it in the car with the rebuild 700R4 and new torque converter.

So I've got the wiring harness all connected and the car's almost ready to be cranked over. I went and got myself one of those Mr. Gasket oil pump priming tools and I was turning the oil pump with my drill tonight and I got oil through only cylinder #7 lifters to spill onto the rockers.

This concerns me ... I really should have checked this when it was on a stand ... but it's too late for that now. So I had someone else turn the drill for me so the pump was still turning, and I rotated the engine so the valves were opening and closing, but still only one set of valves were getting oil.

Does anybody have any advice? I'm worried that my engine's oil galleys are plugged up, but I just don't know. Should I be getting oil through all of the push rods? Sure seems like it. This is all on a L03 TBI engine.

So if this engine is toast, I'm not out a whole lot. I just wanted to drive the car for a while so I can build my 383 stroker

Any advice appreciated!

 

Does your pump primer have the upper collar on it that fits down onto the lifter valley hole? Does it look like the part of your distributor above the gear? Or is it just a shaft?

If it's just a shaft, then you wont get oil to the rockers.

If it's built like a distributor, then you may need to turn over hte engine to get oil to other rockers. The lifters can sit in a spot in the lifter bore where oil cant get to the lifter.

 

I have this one: http://www.jegs.com/i/Mr.+Gasket/720/3795G/10002/-1

It's just the small shaft. Nothing else on it. So ... unless I have the larger diameter with machined lands and valleys on the body, I might not get oil through the lifters up to the rockers ... okay I feel better now. At least I got the mains and the cam all oiled up. Should make for a nice easy startup.

What pressure should I be reading when I turn the pump with the tool I used? I don't have provisions setup to fire up the dash to look at the gauge, but that can be arranged rather easily. Or should I go get a good ol' mechanical gauge?