No oil pressure when priming (help quick)

[Turbo 6 Justin]

okay three days and counting till the damn thing gets strapped to a trailer and goes down to the nats and we still can't get the oil pump to prime. Okay here is what we got. I believe it was a Poston high flow high volume whatever front cover new gears (larger) and so forth. we packed it with vasoline and tried priming it nothing. tried the suck the oil in the top cooler line about 3 times and got no pressure. and this is with a lot of drilling on the oil pump to give it time to get there.

What is curious is the factory oil light goes off but the autometer gauge that t's off from the same point does not move. there is oil in the clear autometer line and a bit of oil will come out of the turbo feed line but NOTHING gets to the rockers (we even did 'prime' the pushrods thing. when trying to prime it and turning it backward it colapses the oil bottle so I know it sucks (yeah aint that the truth) but it does not seam to be pushing with any pressure at all. Like I said it does move some fluid but definitly not at more than maybe 1-2 psi (enough perhaps to trip the stock idiot light but not move the autometer gauge) we also checked the autometer gauge and tubing on another vehicle and it is working just fine.

So what gives? is this the classic front cover hole not drilled out enough symptom? which I honestly don't remember looking at when it was installed.

tick tock goes the clock. I have today and tuesday to work on it then off to bowling green. Thank you for your advice.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

TICK TOCK THIS!!

Can feel the frustration!!
Does the drill motor load up when doing the prime thing?? If so, then I'm betting the cover is not drilled.
Do you have a "turbo saver" on it?? If so, is the line arrangement in the right order? If they are crossed, it WILL force the oil against the filter check valve and shut the flow down.

Have you pulled the relief spring and valve out and see if it's stuck open??

 

[Turbo 6 Justin]

when sucking the oil out of the quart you can feel the drill bog down a little but I never really noticed when going clockwise with everything hooked up that the drill was going any slower.

No turbo saver

the relief spring is new so it should be okay. but it does bring up a question, the relief valve liiks kind of like a thimble (bad description but bear with me) and the only way it seams to work is with the spring going into the end of the relief valve. (the place on a thimble where your finger or whatever fits in not the outside. IS THIS CORRECT? this seams to be the only way the spring will fit but the instructions were pretty vague with the front cover.


It was weird when we were scratching our heads we thought maybe the autometer gauge needed to be bled so we unhooked the gauge end and spun the pump. It took probably at least a minute before oil stared coming out the line (6 ft line) it seams to me that oil should be pushing through there much faster

and just another double check the gearssit in the housing, outside of that there is a very thin gasket and then the piece with the relief valve then an o-ring and the cooler line assembly, nothing else correct???

Keep the ideas coming

 

[Chuck Leeper]

????

The mystery deepens!!
The relief goes in the way you described. The other way and you won't get the screw on cover to fit.

It sounds to me like you have the pump assembled correctly. Have you confirmed that the pickup passage is open in the cover?? I'd yank that cover and start from there.
what's the test using a qt bottle?? where are you feeding the pump from?? The only passage that should be open to the INLET of the pump is the pickup tube and the passage in the block into the cover. The cooler lines are just a loop AFTER the pump and before the oil re-enters the block.

IF you have oil supply to the pump, the relief is operating, then the drill motor will put a serious twist on your wrist when it picks up prime!!!

As for the ga. line.. It should have pissed oil 20' when you hit the drill.. You ARE turning the drill in the right direction????

LC posted this same problem a couple yrs ago.. bout the time the "no drilled" covers made it to market. Most all the HI vol covers are made in HONG KONG Some were "made" in MI too..

 

[Steve Wood]

You can fill the pump cavity by pouring oil down a cooler line, then it should prime easily when spinning it.

If you used a new cover, Chuck is most likely correct in that the passageway is blocked by casting flash.

 

[gmpower6]

Justin while priming the motor have some body crack the oil filter and wait for the oil to start coming out and then close it back up should have it prime then. Sean

 

[Turbo 6 Justin]

mystery deepens!!
The relief goes in the way you described. The other way and you won't get the screw on cover to fit.

exactly what I thought there is no way to compress that thing enough


It sounds to me like you have the pump assembled correctly. Have you confirmed that the pickup passage is open in the cover??

No that is tomorrow 6 am project I guess

I'd yank that cover and start from there.
what's the test using a qt bottle?? where are you feeding the pump from??

When priming from the upper line that goes into the radiator

The only passage that should be open to the INLET of the pump is the pickup tube and the passage in the block into the cover. The cooler lines are just a loop AFTER the pump and before the oil re-enters the block.

IF you have oil supply to the pump, the relief is operating, then the drill motor will put a serious twist on your wrist when it picks up prime!!!

That is not happening, I have a 3/8 drill that spins real fast and it never bogs down and a 1/2" that is a lot slower but has a lot more guts neither one really slows down much like it is finally grabbing. I know what it feels like from other motors once it primes the drill hates it basically.

As for the ga. line.. It should have pissed oil 20' when you hit the drill.. You ARE turning the drill in the right direction????

clockwise, yes that is the right direction. I figured it should give a pretty good squirt too, not the very slow dribble we got


LC posted this same problem a couple yrs ago.. bout the time the "no drilled" covers made it to market. Most all the HI vol covers are made in HONG KONG Some were "made" in MI too..


In my mind I figured 4-5 years ago the problem was reckognized and should be fixed by now. Possibly not???


keep it coming

 

[jetmech]

I HAD THE SAME POSTEN COVER AND IT WAS NOT DRILLED , I TRYED FOR A DAY TO GET IT TO PRIME AND PACKED THE GEARS AND POURED OIL DOWN THE HOSE AND NOTHING WORKED. PULL THE COVER OFF THE GEARS AND COMPARE ALL THE PASSAGES W/ YOUR OLD COVER AND I BET THE PASSAGE ON THE FRONT SIDE OF THE COVER WAS NOT DRILLED . LET US KNOW HOW IT WENT. (VERY FRUSTRATING) GOOD LUCK AND TELL THEM TO SEND YOU ANOUTHER GASKET KIT FOR FREE SINCE THE COVER WAS NOT DRILLED AND YOU DONT WANT TO USE THE GASKETS AGAIN.

 

[turbosam6]

I had this problem once. Turned out when we put the gasket on it slipped a little and the pump was pulling air around the gasket and not from the pickup. Good luck.