Oil pressure before starting

D

dgkipp

Member
I am about to fire up a crate engine that has been setting for several years.
There is no rust the cylinders are clean.
Is there a way of getting oil pressure through the engine before I fire it up, even pulling the plugs and freewheeling the engine there is a lot of areas that will not get oil for several minutes. Thanks for your help.
 
Pulling the plugs and freewheeling is the only way I know for a flathead. There are pre-oiler assemblies out there, not just for the first fire, but systems to use at every startup. Years ago I had one on my 383 powered Plymouth Duster. I had a substancial amount of money in the engine and left very little to chance. The system was made by LRI and was easy to install. That was 1987, so likely better ones out there now. Rod
 
I primed a flathead with a cheap garden pump sprayer hooked it up to the oil sender port and pumped a couple of quarts threw it.
 
You can prelube the engine through the threaded ports at the rear of the block. I made a pressurized system to do this. There should be several previous posts on this subject. A quick search should bring them up.
 
Spray Marvel Mystery Oil in the cylinders and down the carb with a parts washing gun. I us a paint pressure pot with a quart of oil sitting on the bottom and the pick up tube on the lid inserted into the quart of oil. Put about 10 lbs pressure into the air hose of the pot. The oil go's into where the oil sender go's. You can also turn the engine after installing new oil with the plugs out, a rag over the plug holes and a mechanical gauge in the sender hole with 12 volts to the starter and the pressure you see will be the pressure driving down the road at 45 MPH. G.M.
 
And after you've done all those previously mentioned things, put oil in the the sump and roll the engine over (up side down) on the floor.
I have seen a brand new crate engine that locked up in the gudgeons about a minute after it was started.
 
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