I'm ready to fire up my rebuilt stocker 170. As per suggestions I gleaned from posts on the board, I splashed oil on the rockers, pulled the plugs and turned it over with the starter. (I didn't pack the oil pump with vaseline, maybe I should have). I ran the starter til the battery started to give in (off and on, maybe 3 minutes). No oil pressure. How long should it take to see oil pressure when turning a new engine over with the starter?

tim

Pull the oil filter off and see if you have oil in there.
If little to no oil in the filter, pour some in there, also pour oil into the feed holes leading down into the pump rotor.
Put a drain pan under the filter as you screw it back on. (work fast, some oil will pour out as you flip the filter over)

Re-charge the battery and crank the engine some more, you should get pressure within a minute of "off and on" cranking.
DD

I had this problem when I didn't pack my pump with vaseline, after 3 minutes I never got oil to the rockers, so I had to install a crank bolt, pull the oil filter and dollup some oil into the pickup from the pump and use a wrench to slowly run the crank backwards... after a minute of wearing my arms out of slowly rotating things. I put the filter back on and ran it with the starter for 1 minute and got some oil....buttoned it up and proceeded with the break in....

yipes,

-D.Idiot

thanks-- I'll proceed as advised! Next time i go with vaseline.

I never had this problem, and didn't do anything special, no vaseline packing etc, just started it and went on...

The trick Doc mentioned is a good one, when using fresh filters, pour oil in them to the top and let it sit for a while to let the filtering media get saturated. You can pour the oil back in the engine. This way oil will flow lots quicker through the filter then a bone dry one.

Every oil change my grandfather and I did, we always wetted the filter 'rubber'/gasket with a little bit of fresh oil to have it seal better, and we always poured about 1/4 quart into the filter before installing to 'prime' things up. Every oil change I always have a slight dip in pressure, but not far enough down to make things 'dry' for a moment....

-D.Idiot

Other then being quick, are there any other tricks so that when flipping the filter over to install, you don't soak the front end/driveway ?

How about putting the oil filter, with teh oil in it, into the freezer the night before?
Thicker oil takes longer to run, so might buy you those extra seconds you need?
Personally, I never bother priming filters, I can live with a few seconds of no oil pressure at idle every six months.

Regards, Andrew.

I usually go with the vaseline. At the very least,you could go with some STP, Motor Honey, or something like that to prime the pump rotors a few revolutions. The only time I've seen a problem, is when some one has forgotten some oil galley plugs.

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'66 Cuda 225/4spd
'66 Dart GT convertible 225/auto
'64 Dart GT 340/4spd

How about this: Fill the engine with regular oil. Fill the filter with Lucasoil (super thick). By the time you get it screwed on to the filter housing youll be lucky if any dripped onto the floor and itll treat your engine to boot.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Err unless the oil is so thick its practically solid, I don't care how thick it is its going to run out of an upside down filter.... unless when you say fill the filter, you only mean about two spoons worth or so.

Lucasoil is pretty close. Thicker than gear oil.

Personally I dont worry about it but Im sure if you were to fill the filter with this stuff youd have a good second or so of grace to flip the filter over and get it threaded. Even if you put a bottle in the oilpan and left the filter dry, the elimination of dry starts will make up for it. IMO.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Hi everybody, new here but when I grew up, brother had slant 6 truck in redneck way of hotrodding that non-descript truck.

My suggestion:
Priming that dry engine with oil, I'd take two oil filters. Drill into oil filter and put nipple to it to connect hose to a funnel and fill that up with oil. The oil will find way to the oil pump. Remove the modified filter & catch spills and put intact dry filter in, PROVIDING there's no anti-drain valve built into that assembly.

Hey, that is one odd way to put filter upside down on slant 6 instead of down or at least at angle to lessen spills.

My 2.2 (fixing up 1987 caravan) has filter pointing straight out but has anti-drainback valve in the threaded nipple. Still stilly in that position.

Cheers,

Wizard

Putting a little oil in the filter did the trick. Forty-five seconds of cranking on the starter and the oil pressure popped right up. Stuck the plugs in and engine fired, runs and sounds pretty good. Thanks for all the advice on this project over the past few months!

A little late, but the oil filter trick I use is to cant the new filter over approx 45*, and fill it with oil until the filter can hold no more (be sure to spin the filter around slowly so the oil soaks into the filter media). This fills the filter approx 1/2 to 2/3 of the way. Then, keeping the filter 'upright' I set the edge of the filter on the pump housing, roll it over and screw it on. I have never lost more oil than could be cleaned up in one swipe with a rag, and the oil pressure comes up within 2-3 seconds of starting.

Now if someone has a way to take a used filter OFF w/o spilling all over the place, I am all ears

-S/6