How to prime oil galleries before starting engine?

[Anthony Violi]

Fitted new cam and lifters. Refitted oil cooler. I am concerned about priming oil galleries prior to starting engine, I’m not sure how to do it. Is there a way to do this safely?

[bee utey]

I do it by unscrewing the oil pressure switch, sticking a 1/4" BSP nipple in and connecting up a 1 litre hand pump. Pump slowly and firmly to make sure some oil ends up in the engine oil pump.

[Anthony Violi]

Will it pump oil into oil cooler aswell?

[bee utey]

Will it pump oil into oil cooler aswell?

Well it should as it is connected between the oil pump and the main gallery. The best way to see if your oil cooler is filled is to loosen the line at the oil pump. Also remember to fill the oil filter to the brim before fitting. This takes a few goes.

[67hardtop]

If its a petrol motor pull the plugs out disconnect the coil and crank till oil light goes out. If its a diesel tben remove glow plugs and do the same. If its a td5 they only have 4 glow plugs. Im not sure wether u can turn the fuel off to stop the cylinder that has no glow plug from firing. Maybe unplug tbe injector loom or pull out a fuse and crank till oil light goes off?

[Keithy P38]

If its a petrol motor pull the plugs out disconnect the coil and crank till oil light goes out. If its a diesel tben remove glow plugs and do the same. If its a td5 they only have 4 glow plugs. Im not sure wether u can turn the fuel off to stop the cylinder that has no glow plug from firing. Maybe unplug tbe injector loom or pull out a fuse and crank till oil light goes off?

P38’s don’t have distributors! They have either two, or four coil packs.

Cheers
Keithy

[Pedro_The_Swift]

well,,,, you could mark each lead and unplug them,, just stand well clear when turning over [bigrolf]

[bee utey]

well,,,, you could mark each lead and unplug them,, just stand well clear when turning over [bigrolf]

It's actually quite easy, take out all 8 plugs, insert them back into the leads and lay them on the rocker covers. You don't want to just let the coil packs arc everywhere, that can make them fail quite quickly.

[67hardtop]

It's actually quite easy, take out all 8 plugs, insert them back into the leads and lay them on the rocker covers. You don't want to just let the coil packs arc everywhere, that can make them fail quite quickly.Mechanic at my work did exactly that on a v8 VS SS. He was about to do a compression test. He cranked the motor over and it went up in flames. He forgot to take the injection fuse out. Fuel got ignited. Be careful.

[101RRS]

I recently had a new 4.6 to start. I filled the oil cooler, filled the oil filter, accessed the port on the side of the oil filter housing and filled it until oil ran out and did it again. When I had installed the oil pump when the engine was being built, I filled it with oil (not grease as advised for a 3.5) - sure it does run back into the sump but enough stays in to help on start.

I made sure I had a working oil pressure light sender and light.

Even with filling everything possible it took about 2 minutes of cranking before pressure is achieved - only is achieved when the oil pump has pumped oil all the way up to the top of the engine (takes a while) and the oil hits the restriction of the small passages in the rocker gear and allows pressure to build up.

On actual start, the oil pressure came up immediately.

Garry