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Starting rebuilt engine !

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John_Progess

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I am helping a friend attempting to start a newly rebuilt engine. I have removed the plugs and turning the engine with the gear reduction starter trying to establish oil flow/detection. I have cranked the engine approximately 7 times for about 10 seconds each try and I have no oil coming out the flex line to the oil pressure gauge. I'm starting to get a little worried. The oil level has gone down from full line to half way between full and add lines. I think this is the result of filling the oil filter so I think I might have some flow. Should I continue turning the engine over? Am I being a little too cautious? Is there a better way of turning the oil pump? Thanks for your help and have a good day!

John
 
It takes a long time to get the pressure up. If it has filled the oil filter, you are close. The Healey list said at the factory, they started the engines, this pumps them up right away. We are a little cautious. If you used lots of assembly lube, that will protect the bearings.

Jerry
 
Like Andrea says, Try a few more times. Look in the oil fill and see if oil is coming out at the rocker oil holes ? If oil there than fire it. Good luck !
 
When I was a teenager, an extremely long time ago, My friends and I built quite a few MG engines and some chevy engines under the the tutelege of my friends father who was an aviation mechanic. Maybe we didn't have extreme high lift cams back then nor special oils, etc. But we set the specs and got fuel into the carbs and fired them up right away then held the rpms to somewhere between 1500 to 2000 for 4 or 5 minutes and that was it. I don't remember ever having a faulty engine or one that failed soon afterwards. Today most engine builders will tell you to put it at 2000 rpms and hold it there for a few minutes. It you don't have oil at the gauge in about 5 to 10 seconds then I would shut it down.
 
Maybe it is from the aircraft engines I've done but I have always pre-heated the oil in a pot and then poured it into the engine when I was ready to run it. Doesn't have to be operating temperature hot, but every little bit makes pumping initially easier. The thinner viscosity has always seemed to work for me and I never liked the idea of packing the oil pump with grease which is what some folks suggest.
 
To adlib on Roscoe, I don't like the idea of filling the oil pump with (white-lithium, Vaseline, or name your poison) grease either. Just the same customary film that you put on every other assembled part is sufficient. The thin smear of grease will provide enough of a seal so that the pump can produce a vacuum and start filling it up with oil right away (and then you don't have to worry about pumping ALL THAT sludge throughout the system__imagine how long it would take to pass a wad of grease through the pinhole in the timing chain tensioner, or for that matter, the tiny orifice that supplies the pressure gauge...?

Never thought of preheating the oil before, but if you can get it into the crankcase, I can't see it hurting anything (in Florida, room temperature oil will be just fine, thank you).
 
I used a cheap but decent 20/50 to run the engine in, I do recall that I had to crank it for a while with plugs out to get the initial pressure up, that was 2000 miles ago and I have had no problems, I did use plenty of the graphite grease during the build.

:cheers:

Bob
 
John_Progess said:
I am helping a friend attempting to start a newly rebuilt engine. I have removed the plugs and turning the engine with the gear reduction starter trying to establish oil flow/detection. I have cranked the engine approximately 7 times for about 10 seconds each try and I have no oil coming out the flex line to the oil pressure gauge. I'm starting to get a little worried. The oil level has gone down from full line to half way between full and add lines. I think this is the result of filling the oil filter so I think I might have some flow. Should I continue turning the engine over? Am I being a little too cautious? Is there a better way of turning the oil pump? Thanks for your help and have a good day!

John
Click to expand...
I used Joe Gibbs "break-in" oil and it was about $7 a quart. We primed my engine before cranking! I'm on a new computer and my files haven't been transferred to it yet but I had a photo of my "primer" that I posted on the BCF that you should be able to look up. Not hard to make and it used a small amount of air pressure from my compressor to force the oil into the engine at the filter connection. We primed it until oil was coming out of the rocker shaft and running down the push rod tubes.
 
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