Thread: Priming a dry engine

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Guys - I rebuilt the 350 that's in my Kaiser project and it's never been run (yet). I've got a T-5 behind it and over time, I've managed to turn the crank enough to where I'm not sure where the stroke is. When I put the beast together, I used lots of that white (moly?) lube in the plastic tube for new engines.
My idea is to, with plugs out, hit the starter and watch a pressure gauge I have in #1 cylinder - driver side front.

1.) Where should I spot the hash mark to match the distributor under the #1 wire... and

2.) Am I safe to use a hand switch and move the works 1/4 turn at a time without oil in the crankcase?
Might be fall or late summer before I'm ready to run the engine and maybe I should just wait until then to do this with a sump full of oil..?
One more thing, it's been a long time but I seem to remember I once stuck a long screwdriver without the handle, chucked in a drill and spun it to prime the system.

3.) Do I slowly spin it counter-clockwise? Duh... too many questions, sorry.

Spin Clock wise. They make a tool for that or you can make one yourself with an old distributor. W wouldn't get carried away turning it over with the starter till its primed.

1. Find TDP and then insert the distributor in a manner that has the business end of the rotor pointing toward the front of the engine.

2. I'd fill it with oil and zinc additive and prime with the tool referenced above to get a good shot of oil everywhere it belongs. Repeat when you're ready to fire it up.

3. Like Charlie said - I wouldn't be using the starter until oil pressure was achieved with the priming operation.

Smart advice, thanks!

Here's the priming tool you want to use. I completes the passenger side oil galley so that the passenger side rockers will get oil. If you use just a plain shaft like a screwdriver, the passenger side will not get oil.
Proform Oil Pump Primers 66896 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing

Do yourself a favor and read through this tutorial......
http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...op_dead_center

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Yup - what Tech said. Got one just like it myself and it works like a charm. A word of advice - use a variable speed 1/2" drill - start slow and go just fast enough to let oil dribble out of the pushrods. Too fast gets oil all over the place and things get messy real quick (trust me on this!!) Like 500 RPM.

Originally Posted by glennsexton

A word of advice - use a variable speed 1/2" drill - start slow and go just fast enough to let oil dribble out of the pushrods.

Note the 1/2" drill, it's important. You'll burn up a 3/8" drill, from recent personal experience.

Originally Posted by rspears

Note the 1/2" drill, it's important. You'll burn up a 3/8" drill, from recent personal experience.

It was a heavy-duty 3/8" Milwaukee drill that I had my "unfortunate" oiling experience with. The engine was in the car so I was already stretched across the fender and leaning on the engine propped on my elbows with my face about 4 inches away from the rocker arms. I think it was a 0 - 3,000 RPM drill and I grabbed the trigger - nothing happened for about 10 seconds, motor bogged a bit so I pulled her all the way down and it about jerked out of my hand, whacked the handle against the firewall pushing in that damn little "hold-the-drill-on-button" and 5W-30 shot oil everywhere (my hair, up my nose, in my eyes.. it was bad.) I wanted to be upset by my wife was laughing so hard she nearly wet her pants (at least she had the presence of mind to unplug the drill) so I just chalked one up to a "learning experience". You can't make stuff this up.... It just happen as a part of life!

Soooo now I use the tool and a nice 0-500 RPM 1/2" drill.

My story is nothing like that memory maker, but when I did mine my nearly new Makita variable 3/8" was smoking a bit as I finished the prime, and had been noisy since. Last week I was using a 2.5" hole saw in fir 2x stock, and ALL of the smoke escaped from the drill, along with a bit of fire from the vents. I'm shopping for a new drill.....

Well like of a lot of electric devices, they run on smoke, ya know. Once ya let the smoke out - they never work again...

You guys crack me up and I have had to get a cloth to wipe the coffee off my face and beard from laughing with your wife Glenn. Now that is good information that I will remember so that I don't get to sample oil that way.

I ordered the tool, thanks, Tech! Will print out the step-by-step for finding TDC.
Never too old to learn!

I've had this in my files for years, don't remember where I got it from now.
But it reinforces what Glenn Sexton said!

Everything you wanted to know about auto electricals.

I will now reveal to you everything you wanted to know about electricity. Forget all that nonsense about magnetic fields and the flow of electrons along a conductor, for it is just that, nonsense…….a myth put about by Auto Electricians to support their lavish lifestyles at your expense.
The reality is…….Smoke!
When you think about it, it all becomes startlingly obvious. Smoke makes all electrical things function, and if the smoke escapes the component stops working. For example, the last time you had to grovel under your car to replace the starter motor, didn’t it start smoking before it stopped working?
Of course it did!
The wiring loom in your car carries smoke from one device to another, pumped around the system by the dynamo, and when a wire springs a leak it lets all the smoke out and everything stops. The starter motor requires lots of smoke to work properly, so it has a very thick wire going to it.
The battery stores up lots of smoke dissolved in the battery acid, which is why they were once called accumulators, until it became apparent that we unwashed home mechanics would twig to the secret.
Naturally, if you try to store too much smoke in your battery it will escape through those little holes in the top, which is why those newfangled batteries with sealed tops explode when they get too much smoke in them.

With regard to Joseph Lucas and his wrongfully sullied reputation, why is he so maligned? Why are Lucas components more likely to leak smoke than, say, Bosch or Marrelli? It’s because Lucas is British, and British things always leak. British motorcycles leak oil, British sports cars leak rain, British hydrolastic units leak fluid, and British Governments leak military secrets.
So, naturally, British electrical components leak smoke.

So now you know.

Now I don't care where you're from - that's funny Johnboy!

been a while since I've read that.. and it is still funny! Thanks for the smile JB!