TR6 priming TR6 oil pump?!

[skikir]

I replaced a piston and bearings in my TR. I checked the oil pump. Bla, bla, bla.... I cranked and cranked and then started the engine and can't get any oil pressure. I've run it about 15 seconds and don't want to run it any more than that without oil pressure. I glazed over a procedure to prime the oil pump but did not really read it and now I need to know. How can I prime the oil pump?

 

[DNK]

Get a long Screw stick,flat blade. cut off the handle stick it in a drill and I think it goes counter clock but somebody better chime in on that.

 

[RomanH]

Oil pump rotates in the same direction as the distributor, counter clockwise.

 

[hondo402000]

did you replace the oil pump? I think you should have had oil pressure after running the engine for 15 sec, my oil pressure comes up after about 3-5 sec. you could check the oil pressure relief valve and see if its stuck open some how, also is your gauge working? when I refinished my dash and put the gauges back in when I started the car the oil pressure would come up to around 20 psi and go no further, I bought a cheap oil gauge at auto zone and when I hooked it up the pressure was 60 so the gauge . took the old gauge and blew some compressed air in the line and she worked fine after that

 

[vettedog72]

You can spin the motor pretty fast with out the plugs being in place and there is relitively no load of the bearings. I never had to prime my oil pump and got pressure ok. The oil filter has to fill up and if you are OEM there is no way you can pre-fill it. (I use a remote oil filter that I fill up manually.) 15 seconds is not a problems with out oil pressure if you used a good assemble lube on the main and rod bearings as well as the pistons. Since you are concerned, follow the previous advise about running the oil pump with a drill. I know this may sound dumb, but be sure you put the oil in.

 

[billspit]

I friend of mine that is a pretty good mechanic used to pack his pumps with vasoline. I never have.

 

[Brosky]

As with any pump, priming requires liquid to create a vacuum suction that will pull the desired fluid in to the pump. If it's dry, it only pulls air as it spins, so having a slightly heavier oil in there increase the chances that it will have enough suction to pull from the sump into the gears.

 

[tomshobby]

What if, just by chance, the pump is not able to self prime or able to produce oil pressure for some reason with the pump or another part of the engine? How long would you want to keep turning over the engine?

There are most likely no problems but if it were mine I would prime the pump.

 

[skikir]

I assume I have to remove the distributer drive gear to drive the oil pump?

 

[tomshobby]

Yes, not hard to do. Remove the flange and pull the gear. I use a magnet tool to reach inside the gear and with a little wiggling back and forth it comes right out.
The positioning of the gear is described in the Bently manual.
There is a tolerence involved in the fit of the retainer and the gear. It is attained by the thickness of the gasket under the mounting flange. It is easy to check and also described in the Bently manual.

 

[vettedog72]

Got any pressure?

 

[skikir]

No not yet. I got a rod and cut and notched it, dissassembed the distributer and drive and gave it a quick spin when the battery in the drill went flat. That was about 9:15 so I kicked the tire and went to bed. I filled the filter whith oil but I need to pull the filter again and force oil up into the pump. I have a spin on oil filter adaptor. Anyone got any tips on the best way to do that? I haven't looked at it to see what I'm into. I was thinking of loosening the bolt turning it up and dumping a pint of oil into it then tilt it down again and reinstalling a full filter and retightening the bolt. I'm going into a long term work overtime situation so I might not have a lot of time to work on it. We are building a new hospital and are going to open it in August so there is a lot of work to be done befor go live so the boss says overtime is not an issue. That's going to really bugger up the spring and summer and that choice top down time here in Oregon.

 

[skikir]

OK, I got it primed. I removed the oil filter, loosened the oil filter adaptor, rotated it up so it acted like a funnel. Pored oil in to it and ran the pump with the drill and got oil flow at least onto the floor. I returned the filled oil filter back to normal and ran the oil pump until I got oil out the rocker arm oil feed tube. Reassembled the distributer and started the engine but I only got minimal pressure. No more than 10psi. At that point I think I ran out of fuel and then the battery went flat. So I kicked the tire and went inside and got into a row with the wife about the exhaust fumes from the garage and went to bed. I was really expecting a lot more pressure. before I did all this the rods really knocked hard before the pressure came up but it would come up to 50 psi while it was cold and then dropped WAY down when it warmed up. Now the rod do not knock but the oil pressure is WAY down. I'm hoping there is air in the system or the pump is cavitating and it will clear up when I get back to it.

Aren't Miatas cute?

 

[skikir]

OK! I got pressure. I found some gunk in the oil pressure regulator. I was supprised by the way the regulator piston looked. It looked warn in places and the spring wore on the shaft too. I remember looking at it last year when I was investigating if my low pressure was due to a dirty regulator and it looked OK. I compaired it to the one in my spare engine and it too had the same wear marks. I'll order a new one Monday. I still have issues but I think I run it for the summer now.

 

[Trick6]

This happened to me 5 years ago. I pulled the pan to check the rod and main bearings. Cleaned the sludge out of the pan, installed all new clean stuff and fired it up. No pressure. I could not figure it out. Frantic, I made a couple of calls and was told how to prime the pump. If I remember correctly, I removed the oil pressure plug or the relief valve and squirted oil right into or onto the pump. I removed the spark plugs, spun the motor and the pressure gauge climbed up to 50 lbs. That was an adventure.

 

[MTribe]

I just tried priming the pump with the drill technique... how long do you have to run it to see oil out of the rocker shaft? I ran it a couple minutes, no dice. Maybe I'm going too slow? How fast are you guys running the drill?

 

[startech47]

Are you turning the drill in the correct direction?

 

[MTribe]

Think so--counterclockwise.

I'm not turning the drill that fast.. if you were to read "wah-wah-wah" at normal speed, that's with the drill sounds like going around. How fast do you spin it?

 

[Moseso]

Your motor turns the pump at the same speed as the distributor: half crankshaft speed. At idle (900 rpm) the pump is going 450, etc. You can spin it faster than "wah-wah-wah."