No oil to rockers

[Rick]

I primed the oil pump by packing the gears with vaseline and rotating CCW with oil from the upper oil cooler hose. The oil pan is filled to the proper level. I then used a drill CW to pump oil after hooking cooler hose back to radiator.
My pressure gauge will go anywhere from 0 to 70 lbs of pressure while turning the oil pump gear.
I have the valve cover off the driver side and no oil is being pumped in. When I crank the engine the pressure comes up to about 20 pounds but shouldn't I see a bunch of oil squirting in to the rocker area??
I haven't actually started the engine yet since purchased.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

NO OIL??

If there's no oil to the dr rockers, I'd ask the builder if there was a mod known as the "Ruggles" mod made to the cam brgs to restrict oil to that side of the engine.. Also, if the ft oil galleys have been tapped and plugged w/ pipe plugs, they could be screwed in too far, thus cutting off the oil to the lifter galley.[It is also possible to drive the stock plugs in too far!]
NOTE: If the pass side is cut off due to the problem w/ the plug, then the oil is just going over relief and not thru the brgs.. DO NOT start the engine!
Where is the oil pressure ga tapped in??

FWIW, there's no value in doing the "fill the hose" exercize if the pump has been packed w/ "sneaky cream".. All you did by reverse rotating the pump was to push the vaselene back into the pan...priming the pump w/ cw rotation of the drill will pull the system full as it would be with the engine running...

How long did you run the pump in the CW direction? Sometimes it will take a few seconds to get oil up to the top side..

What kind of lifters are in the engine? Rollers?

Cranking the engine w/out starting may not show oil at the rockers that quickly.
I'd go back and run the primer drill and see if a minute or 2 will get the oil up there.. [You will notice the drill getting warm after a minute or 2.].. If it stays at 70 psi.. good.. if it drops.. not good..

Lets look at these ?'s and see where to go from there..
HTH,

 

[Rick]

Supposedly this is a stock 45K mile engine thats never been opened before. Bought it from another board member, it ran before he pulled it from the car. When I got it I put new timing chain and gear on and related gaskets. I also replaced the valve springs before putting motor in car.
The oil sensor is on the passenger side of timing cover just above the oil pump assembly. I ran the drill for a a minute at least on a few different attempts. Should I run it fast or slow? I tried both. Every once in awhile I'd get a slight spurt (barely) of oil out of a pushrod. Can here a lot going on in there when I quit pumping and the gear goes backwards a bit after I remove the drill.
The pressure goes immediately back to 0 after stopping drill

 

[Chuck Leeper]

NO OIL PSI??

I'd go back and run the drill for a few minutes or until I got the oiling started to show at the rockers.
The noises are the various leaks, as around the lifters, etc.. normal. As is the primer tool "backing up".. this is due to the psi at the outlet of the pump, driving the gears in reverse.. not a problem..

If this is an "unopened" engine, there should be no oil mods to consider..

 

[salvageV6]

Pull the line off the turbo and hook it to a gauge, bet you got pressure there.

My car took about 2 minutes of running before the oil showed up in the heads.

Typical Buick it just dribbles up there from what I've seen on 2 cars.

 

[Rick]

I unhooked the turbo oil feed line and it squirts big time when I run the drill. I ran the drill for at least 3 minutes and I see oil barely creeping from the pinholes in the rockers. Is this okay? I see around 50 pounds pressure on the gauge. I even bypassed the oil coiler collar to make sure the radiator I was using wasn't creating a blockage. Could it be a blockage on the timing cover gasket I put on when I changed the timing chain? I thought I checked it but it is a possibility I may have missed it. If I have oil at the turbo feed should it be okay everywhere else? I'll wait back to here from you guys before I proceed.

 

[salvageV6]

I doubt it's a blockage.

I would start the car, watch the gauges and idiot light, and listen for any unusual sounds.

Bet you get oil up there in 2 minutes.

Bet it dribbles out. You can leave the cover off for a bit too.

Just my .02 if you've got 50lb.s at the turbo.

 

[John Larkin]

When I changed valve springs, we ran the car with the covers off for a minute or two. Never saw a big spurt like you'd see from a Chebby. Like salvage said, just dribblin and pooling.

 

[Rollin]

I've been there.... Motor had great pressure for awhile and sounded awesome then fell off about 15 lbs overall and started clacking on drivers side. Start the motor I'll bet it clacks like a mofo on the drivers side. I had good pressure at cranking and dribbling out the tops of the drivers side rockers when pre-lubing forever(checking for oil to that side). Only to have the motor not have any oil pressure to the drivers side once started ... just dribbles. I pulled the timing cover to find the drivers side cam galley plug missing it was not staked by the person who installed the cam bearings/kit and got pushing out. In hind sight I should have went with my gut(internal pressure leak) on this problem and took it apart that night. I wasted about 2 wks trying not to take it back apart pulling everything but the front cover, wasted time and money on G.M. correct lifters(practically impossible to find), gaskets, killed a good cam etc, etc, etc . Never again will I assume(my bad) the machine shop knows what its doing, I triple check everything now . Good luck
hope ya find it.

 

[Rick]

Well, it sounds like it is okay, I think.

Thanks guys, I'll let you know how it turns out when and if I ever get it started. Should be soon!!

 

[TurboDave]

Originally posted by Rick
I primed the oil pump by packing the gears with vaseline and rotating CCW with oil from the upper oil cooler hose. The oil pan is filled to the proper level. I then used a drill CW to pump oil after hooking cooler hose back to radiator.
My pressure gauge will go anywhere from 0 to 70 lbs of pressure while turning the oil pump gear.
I have the valve cover off the driver side and no oil is being pumped in. When I crank the engine the pressure comes up to about 20 pounds but shouldn't I see a bunch of oil squirting in to the rocker area??
I haven't actually started the engine yet since purchased.

You won't get any oil up to the rockers just by running the pump. It's the lifters in action that move the oil up to the rockers, so you'll have to have the car running to get any oil moving up there.

This is a Buick V6, not a chevy small block, you're not going to get any oil spurting up there like a chevy. It gets up there pretty slow, and dribbly at best, but works.

 

[PaulRV6]

My expierence from building my last motor took quite a long time (20 min at least) to get oil up the push rods to the rockers. But I wasn't going to stop the prime till I knew oil was going to come out the rocker holes. You may have to stop the prime and bar the engine over a couple turns, then prime again. It will come out on the prime if you go long enough. You should be ok.

paul