My new motor has been sitting since last summer. I turn the crank over every month so that the rings don't sit in one place. I don't have my heads back from the machine shop yet, so yesterday I thought I would prime the oil system with a drill and an old distributer shaft that I ground the cam gears off of. I am getting a far amount of oil out of ALL the lifters on the drivers side but the lifters on the passanger side stay dry regardless of where I turn the crank or how long I spin the oil pump with my drill. The short block was completly rebuild by a good machinist about 500 miles ago. I assembled everything myself. Could I have screwed something up? I'm really worried that something has gone wrong on my new motor. It's a late 60's bbc 396 bored .030

just a shaft will not seal the lifter galley, it needs the dist. body to seal the oil groove and allow oil to flow to the lifters.

Rusty,

This is just a guess, but as I remember it, oil flows to the cranks mains and the main feed the rod journals and the cam. From the rear Main journal, oil is feed directly to the rear cam bearing and then to the two passage ways to the lifter feed tubes. If this is the case, and you put a lot of moly grease on the rear of the cam, one passage may be blocked. If your getting 40 to 50 lbs of oil pressure with your 1/2 inch drill, it should finally get through. In some cases, it could take a little while to do so. You may want to pull the far back lifter on the side that is getting oil up and tape it there. This will generate more pressure on the other side, and may unplug any extra moly. You could even pull the far back lifter on the side that is not getting oil and run the drill. It may give you a clue, just a thought.

Fred.

>>and an old distributer shaft that I ground the cam gears off of

there would be your problem. you need the bottom part of the old distributor housing to fill in the area where the dist goes through the oil galley.

check this:

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SUM%2D901010&N=700+115&autoview=sku

I feel kinda stupid that I never put together the fact that the oil pump primers you buy have that peice that plugs the area where the distributer body would sit. I knew I could count on you guys to explain this problem. Thanks for the help, you guys are great! Also, isn't it kinda wierd that if the distributer body was flawed or not sealing good that there would be low oil presure to half the lifters. It just seems like a strange design.