What to do to make sure I have oil pressure?

[jeepxj2007]

I just put a new motor in my 1998 ford ranger it has the 3.0....the motor sat for a long time, but was not seized up and internals looked great, when pulling it apart everything had a coating of oil on it, some places quite a bit....so what should I do to make sure I have oil pressure before firing her up...pull the wires to the distributor thing where the plug wires connect and turn it over for about 30 seconds and see if the oil pressure gauge rises...would that work?

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

if it was me, i would just start the engine already. your making kind of a big deal over a little thing. theres no reason an engine with that low of miles shouldnt start right up. if the oil pressure gauge doesnt come up withing a few seconds, THEN worry about it...but it isnt going to hurt the engine to run it without pressure long enough to find out.

if you absolutely want to try and prime it, then yes you can remove the cam position sensor and cam syncro shaft and use an electric drill to turn the oil pump. youll have to make some kind of adaptor to go from drill to pump (look at the end of the syncro shaft that engages the oil pump to see what it needs).