Low/No Oil Pressure 351w

[farmer]

So I'm at my wits end here. I'm finishing up my motor swap and I've noticed my mechanical oil pressure gauge is showing no oil pressure. First thought was just some shit in the line from the swap. So the next though was loosen the gauge sender, so it would leak if it had pressure. Tried it but no luck, no leak. So I pulled the drivers side valve cover and tried turning it over. No squirting oil. Bottom of valve cover was slightly oily.

I had to swap oil pans and when I did I put a new standard volume oil pump in, thinking I screwed that up somehow. What I don't understand is I there's no oil pressure, the motor isn't noisy. It's hard telling with open headers though. Before I tear everything back apart, is there any other tricks I can try on this motor to verify the lack of oil pressure?

 

[Andy D]

Some oil pumps have to be primed with vaseline or pumped up by spinning the pump with a drill

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

Some oil pumps have to be primed with vaseline or pumped up by spinning the pump with a drill

X2^

 

[96Indyram]

^ that

pull the distributor, go to autozone and borrow the priming tool. stick it in there and spin it up..I think reverse rotation on drill.

Then ...if no oil still, you will have to pull the pan and see whats going on.

 

[farmer]

So even though I've ran the motor 5-8 minutes it still hadn't primed? Ok I'll try the drill primer. Thanks

 

[RonD]

Make sure to mark the distributor and rotor before pulling it, no need to make a job harder than it needs to be.

You could have had pressure at startup but it is gone now, which is why there was no "noise".
Could be high pressure by-pass valve opened and then stuck open, so oil pump is just pumping oil back into the pan.
I would pull off the oil filter, put a pan under housing and crank engine or use drill.
Could simply be a bad filter.
"New" no longer means "it works", "new" now means "never tested"

 

[farmer]

Figured it out after priming and priming and priming.

Got the hoses backwards on the oil filter relocation

So after that I have awesome pressure.

Also think I put the dizzy back in a tooth off.

Thanks for the helpful answers

 

[TexasRebel]

Figured it out after priming and priming and priming.

Got the hoses backwards on the oil filter relocation

So after that I have awesome pressure.

Also think I put the dizzy back in a tooth off.

Thanks for the helpful answers

At least it was something that easy to fix/redo and not something where you would have to pull everything back apart. We all make stupid mistakes at some point, just some realize it sooner than others.