Priming oil pump

[Jon K]

Ok getting ready to start the car up real soon - whats the best way of priming the oil pump? Some people say unplug injectors and just crank for a bunch. Others say fill the oil filter housing up. Some say fill the oil filter housing down the center hole. Some say fill the oil housing up and depress that valve at the bottom so the oil goes down... so... wtf do I do?

Thanks all

[pundit]

Ok getting ready to start the car up real soon - whats the best way of priming the oil pump? Some people say unplug injectors and just crank for a bunch. Others say fill the oil filter housing up. Some say fill the oil filter housing down the center hole. Some say fill the oil housing up and depress that valve at the bottom so the oil goes down... so... wtf do I do?

Thanks all

I'd prime the filter, (fill up the housing a few times and let it run back down) remove the spark plugs, ensure you're not injecting any fuel and crank the engine over until the oil light goes out. Then she'll be right.

Oh yeah and use some thinnish dino oil 10w-30 etc. just until everything is nicely run in. You don't want to be trying to pump treacle through a new engine on initial start up.

[pundit]

Yeah I am going to use 5w30 **** oil to break it in. When you say prime the filter, do you mean the center hole/tube, or the surrounding area?
The oil should pump through the from the outside of the filter cartridge (greatest surface area) and emerge through the center.

So the center of the filter housing is the outlet and should feed into the main gallery. The other option is if you can remove the oil sender switch and force half a liter (pint) of oil into the gallery with a can.

[Jon K]

you can fill the filter housing and crank it till the light goes off or just crank till the light goes off, filling the housing may make it go off a little faster

Does it matter if I fill the center hole or the whole housing?

[pundit]

Does it matter if I fill the center hole or the whole housing?

Just fill the whole housing. Much of it will drain back down but you will still wind up with some left. It will just speed up the process of getting oil pressure.

As already mentioned spin it over on the starter with the spark plugs out if you wish and watch until the oil pressure light goes out.

[Macv]

Take a video of the first initial crank. Hit or miss, I'd like to hear the raw engine before everything is running smoothly.

[Jon K]

Yeah I am going to use 5w30 **** oil to break it in. When you say prime the filter, do you mean the center hole/tube, or the surrounding area?

[winfred]

you can fill the filter housing and crank it till the light goes off or just crank till the light goes off, filling the housing may make it go off a little faster

[bsell]

Ok getting ready to start the car up real soon - whats the best way of priming the oil pump? Some people say unplug injectors and just crank for a bunch. Others say fill the oil filter housing up. Some say fill the oil filter housing down the center hole. Some say fill the oil housing up and depress that valve at the bottom so the oil goes down... so... wtf do I do?

Thanks all

Jon,

I take it you packed the oil pump with either vaseline or assembly lube before you put it in. Back in the day this was called 'priming the pump.' This technique was argued pretty strongly and at much length a while back on here and a search should turn it up.

When you assembled the engine, you used an assembly lube on all of the moving parts, right? This is designed to protect the parts during the assembly and initial start-up.

Its too bad the oil pump set-up on these engines precludes using an outside source to spin the pump and develop good oil pressure and lubrication throughout the engine before spinning the rest of the engine. Some folks go to the length of using an outside oiling system to flow oil through the engine as a pre-lube to starting.

Anyway, given the choices at hand, I also vote for pre-wetting the oil filter and spinning the engine, sans fuel and spark plugs until you get good oil pressure and the lifters pump up.

I hope you have another set of plugs handy in case the first set gets fouled by all of the assembly goop and oil.

Best of luck,

Brian