Very little oil to heads after oil pump rebuild

[mactizen]

I just rebuilt my oil pump with a new high volume kit from TA performance, i packed it with vasoline and primed the pump with a drill pressure came up to 80 psi in about 20 seconds of spinning the pump. I was going to remove the valve covers to make sre oil was getting there but when i removed the oil cap i could see and feel fresh new oil in the head. So got around to starting the car tonite and the valve train is making a ton of noise, pulled the valve covers and there is actually very little oil comming up, as in i can run the car with the covers off and oil is present but not exatly abundant and spraying as i would imagine.
Anyway did i screw something up ? is the vasoline somehow plugging something?

o **** i should mention since the 3.8 is swapped into an rx7 i had the front cover off for ease of completeing the job if that could have something to do with it but i was quite carefull in replacing the cover/gasket.

Anyway hope someone can help,

thanks,
Mac

 

[mactizen]

search is still not my friend, hoping to go to the track tomorow morning.

 

[BlackBandit]

Did you check the endplay on the pump when you rebuilt it? I've used Vaseline several times with no ill effects so I doubt that's it. Was this just a straight swap from car to car as in you know the engine was fine and now it's making noise? When you started it did it have oil pressure?

 

[notacarlo]

In my experience, it takes a while for oil to get up top. Even then, it isn't gushing, just a little spatter from the top of the rockers.

 

[turbofabricator]

What is your oil pressure when hot? It does not take very much oil to lube the top end, though. If the oil pressure of the engine is good, then it should be OK. What ws the thrust clearance of your new pump? I set the thrust to less than .0015" and really shoot for less than .001" (target of .0005-.001") The tighter the better, as long s there is "some" clearance. The aluminum timing cover expands very quickly and will increase thrust clearance ALOT.

 

[mactizen]

The engine was forsure not making this noise before the work on the pump, as far as endplay on the pump I had my filter housing machined down .0004" to remove a little scoring and create a fresh mating surface. I believe the instructions recomended aprx. .0002" clearance and i set it up with a .0002" feeler gauge and the proper size shim from the shim kit i ordered.

The oil pressure was aprx. 80 psi cold idle, and aprx 22 after about 8-10 minutes of idleing. With any blip of the throttle it would shoot past 60 psi.

Also from a friend of my fathers with alot of SBC experience, i shouldn't see TONS of oil spraying out like i would on a SBC. He's no expert on TR stuff but told me that i would see alot less oil.

I'm pulling the oil pan tomorow to check bearings, cuz i'm not taking it to the track like this, and it seems like the noise must be coming from somewhere else. This motor is supposed to be freshly built, but who knows at this point.