Good evening. I have a brand new home built 350. It is my first Chevy, but not the first engine I have rebuilt. I went almost 'allout' with this one. World Products heads, high lift hydraulic cam, .040 over flat top pistons, stroker crank, recon rods, bigger clutch, and so on. The short version of the story is, I got it because it wouldn't make oil pressure from the 'shop' that built it the first time. I disassembled the engine and had it vatted and magnafluxed. They said the plug in the block under the rear main cap was in the wrong place and the passage was stopped up. Now the passage is clear. Well, I get it together and still NO OIL PRESSURE. It doesn't even make bubbles. I am using a distributor body to prime it with a large hand drill. I am at the end of my rope. If anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE get with me. Sorry for the long post, but I am at a loss for help. THanks in advance. Dennymac

Since you didn't mention any oil leaking out (no oil press) anywhere. Are you getting any resistance from the drill motor? Silly question, have you tryed running the "pre-oiler" drill motor the other way? I can't for the life of me remember the direction (CW or CCW) of the distributor rotation. Coupla things: Oil pump's not getting a prime and is "air bound". I've heard of packing the pump gears with vaseline or a light grease so it'll suck right away.
Oil pump sucking air? The pickup may not be seated in the pump.
Oil pump to main cap seal? The mating surfaces must be perfect.
It's been a long time, but if I remember correctly there are a couple of "welch plugs" behind the cam timing gear. If these are missed / forgotton there'll be no leak (inside the timing cover) and no oil pressure.
Good luck http://www.chevelles.com/forum/confused.gif

Looking down at it from above...clockwise rotation.

There are no external leaks. I tack welded the old pickup onto a new hi-volume oil pump and packed it with vaseline. All of the plugs near the cam are in place, front and back. I have spun the pump in both directions, and get resistance in the clockwise direction. It is filling the filter and squirts a great deal of oil if I remove the filter and spin the pump. The only parts that I reused are the block and the oil pickup. I didn't examine that interface microscopically, but I looked at it, and thought that it was OK. If something doesn't come from this board soon, I will pull the pan and check that again. Once again, many thanks for your assistance.

Where are you plugged in to check for oil pressure? Tried a different gauge?

Jody

b-4 mounting the pan, did you check/set the pickup-to-pan bottom clearance? I've heard stories about the hv pump pickups bottoming on the pan. As someone else put the thing together, remove the spin on adapter for the filter and recheck things there. Otherwise, I'm for making sure all the plugs under the cam sprocket are in place.

There are 3 plugs behind the timing chain. Are the they in place?

My old stroker had a casting flaw in the lifter valley that created an internal oil leak that just dripped back into the pan. RPMs over came the leak the result was little or no pressure at idle with normal pressure at higher rpm. How fast is your drill? If it's a slow speed unit maybe a faster one will help.

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...Dennis
The '69 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/ww.jpg) & the '96 (http://www.camaroslimited.com/graphics/memcars/96ss.jpg)
Team Camaro (http://www.camaros.net)
Camaros Limited (http://www.camaroslimited.com)

I assembled this engine very carefully. All of the external plugs are in place, and sealed, front and rear. The shop that cleaned the block made sure that the 'hidden' plug was removed, the passage cleaned, and the plug replaced. I saw the plug with my own eyes. The drill is a 1/2 inch DeWalt, at about 900 RPM, which makes it 1800 RPM crank speed. The pressure gauge is a mechanical one, and I have the fitting out of the hole in the top rear of the block...not even a bubble of oil shows. The filter adapter is flowing much oil out of the filter...I just don't know where it is going. Once again, many thanks. Dennis

Here's a wild one that just popped into my head. Unfortunately it's a major bummer to check. Please don't let this insult your intelligence or engine assembly ability. Are you 100% sure you put the correct 1/2 of the main bearing insert into the block. Only 1 side has an oil hole, and if it's in the cap your oil passages are effectively capped shut. (I honestly don't remember if the bearing inserts are "keyed" to prevent this possibility) The oil filter adapter would flow like crazy, because it's doing it's job, bypassing an "overpressure" condition.
Like I said it's a wild one, and maybe someone who's put an engine together recently can blow this theory apart.

I am not insulted, and, yes I am positive that the bearing shells are correct. I just removed the oil pan and suspended a plastic pan underneath the engine with oil in it to cover the pickup. When I spin the pump at 600 RPM (1200 crank RPM), I get great quantities of oil out around the rear main and the 2 rear conn rods. No other oil is visible. I checked the rod side clearances and it is around .025. Book calls for .009-.014. All bearing clearances Plastigaged in the center of tolerance. This is a matched set of rods and crank. I got them from the same supplier, along with all bearings. 454 side clearances are .023. Is this my gremlin? Dennis

The clearances are on the "loose" side, the HV pump should compensate, but what's interesting is you're only getting oil from the last (rear) rod journal. The SB chev. is a Mains first design, with passages drilled in the crank to feed the rod journals. Possibly clogged passages in the crank, between mains and rods??

Absolutely everything inside this engine is brand new. The crank was squeeky clean when I placed it in. I ran a wire thru all passages in the crank and made sure that the holes in the cam bearings and main bearings were aligned as well. This is the second rotating assy that this has happened with...same block, new assembly.

Lemme see if I can find my "flow diagram" of the SB oiling paths tonight and kick it around in my head. This is very wierd. Almost like it has an internal defect in the block passages somewhere.

I have a copy of it on my web page, along with pictures of the engine assy.

Oil path http://www.dennymac.com/content.php?menu=1005&page_id=15

Entire El Camino project, and Engine photos http://www.dennymac.com/content.php?menu=10&page_id=3

Looks like your pullin your hair out, so I thought I'd chime in and try to help out somewhere. Am I reading correctly that you can get pressure when you spin it manually? But not with the distributor installed? Is your dist. engaging in the pump shaft properly? Is the roll pin in place on the dist. gear enabling the dist to turn when you crank the engine. I would be tempted in getting a spare dist to see if there is a difference. I've had new parts that were faulty. Hope you get it resolved.

My apologies, I re-read your first comments which I think eliminated what I was thinking. Sorry

No offense taken. I have had an old distributor that has the gear and top parts off to use for priming the system and a brand new HEI installed. Neither one makes pressure.

Let's follow the path from the pump through the filter to the main gallery above the cam. From there it goes to the back side of the rear cam bearing. The rear main is provided oil from here and the 4 front cam bearings also provide oil to their respective main.
You said only the rear main is getting oil so I would start looking at cam bearings and the grooves behind them for a restriction... ot the feed to the cam bearings.

The path I described is from "How to hotrod SBC's"

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...Dennis
The '69 (http://chevelles.com/showroom/ww.jpg) & the '96 (http://www.camaroslimited.com/graphics/memcars/96ss.jpg)
Team Camaro (http://www.camaros.net)
Camaros Limited (http://www.camaroslimited.com)

The oil is not getting as high as the path to the cam bearings. I ran a wire down the pressure fitting hole and it gets oily for about 2 inches from the bottom of the hole.
This is getting seriously annoying. I may have to 'gasp' pay someone for help. Till then, I still appreciate any suggestions.

Another wild one... Oil pump pressure regulator spring and ball? Maybe not seating or spring broken? Piece of mfg. crud in seat?

The pump is brand new, but I can check the spring and seat. I see no oil coming from the pump when I spin it. Thanks, though. I have an appointment Saturday to see a local builder. They are the ones that hot-tanked the block and found the plug in the wrong place. They even remembered me when I called. If I can get them to say the blockis bad, i may get them to replace it because I paid them to magnaflux this one. Time will tell. Once again, many thanks.

One final post on this topic. I spent half the day at the engine rebuilders shop. Long story short, THE PLUG WAS IN THE WRONG PLACE...AGAIN!!!. We pushed it out and put another one in the correct position and I had plenty of pressure. I took it home, put on a new one piece oil pan gasket and it started right up. Plenty of pressure. But, the one piece $35 gasket sprayed out at the timing cover. I'll try the $12 gasket tomorrow. Just goes to show that nothing is ever certain. Check everything yourself. Once again, many thanks for all of the suggestions. Dennis McLeod

I'm glad you finally got this thing resolved! This ordeal just drills the old adage "Measure twice, cut once" further into my head.

Congrats Denny http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

Remember always "THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS, ONLY SOLUTIONS" Some may just take longer.
Mike