proper way to prelube new engine

[chevy art]

would like to know the proper way to prelube a brand new sbc engine. some say to prelube it without rotating engine. some say to turn it a few times as you prelube it and lastly i was told by a very reputable engine builder to rotate the engine every 20 degrees prelube turn another 20 degrees and continue on like that until you rotate it a full 360 degrees. he said this was necessary to fully oil all the rod bearings. any advice is appreciated. thanks art

[bill jones]

---I went to the google search window up in the top right corner and searched oil prime and got this link--that has like 175 stories on speedtalk about oil priming

googlesearch?cx=004096591782399658859%3 ... itesearch=

[rebelyell]

Are you using an air-over-hydraulic source?

[engineguyBill]

Prelube, turn engine by hand 90 degrees, prelube again until you have gone through two complete revolutions. You will be good to go. If oil hasn't reached the rocker arms, repeat the procedure.

[tenxal]

Prelube, turn engine by hand 90 degrees, prelube again until you have gone through two complete revolutions. You will be good to go. If oil hasn't reached the rocker arms, repeat the procedure.

Yep.

[Alaskaracer]

Take belt off dry sump pump. Attach drill. Turn until oil pressure is at max setting...continue until satisfied.......start engine.....

hehehehe, little dry sump humor....

[Dave Koehler]

Prelube, turn engine by hand 90 degrees, prelube again until you have gone through two complete revolutions. You will be good to go. If oil hasn't reached the rocker arms, repeat the procedure.

Yep.

Ditto,
Actually your guy that said to rotate was also right. 20 degrees might be more accurate as far as oil hole alignment but seems a bit overkill.
I go ninety, prime, rinse and repeat.
What this does is line up the oil holes in the crank with the supply holes in the block and it all eventually gets to the rod journals.
Here is the bonus.
You will also find that you will eventually get oil to all the rockers.

Hydraulic lifters.
Do not soak in oil as was the old school thinking.
Use a couple of pieces of aluminum to protect the lifter top and bottom.
Take a short bolt and round the end to fit in the lifter plunger socket.
Squeeze the oil out of the lifters in the vice.
Install
Following the firing order, preset the rocker arms. Take the nut to zero and then 1/4 turn more or whatever you like.
Why remove the oil from the lifter?
When you do the adjustment you can also check that you didn't screw up by adjusting the nut too far.
Push down on the pushrod side and you can tell how much play is left in the plunger travel.
As you go through the priming procedure the lifters will fill back up and make it's way to the rocker arm.
The bonus here is that you will not have to come back and final adjust the valve lash.
Button it up, Fire it up.

Note: After you know what to look and feel for on hydraulic lifters you can skip the squeeze the oil out routine.

[Schurkey]

Everything that needs LUBE was coated in assembly lube during assembly. As long as the long-block doesn't sit on a pallet for weeks or months, there's no need for PRE-LUBING that's more involved than pouring some oil over the rockers before bolting the valve covers on, and pouring oil down the length of the lifter valley and over the timing chain before installing the intake manifold.

PRIMING, on the other hand, seems to be something folks can't live without. It takes thirty seconds if the engine has a submerged oil pump. Long enough to build pressure, and doesn't require turning the crank. Then you're done. As soon as you stop priming--which is intended to purge air from the oil pump, oil filter, and major oil galleries--those galleries begin draining down. The pump and filter should stay full, though.

GM--Ford--Chrysler--etc. sure aren't making a career out of prelubing or priming their engines.

I think the whole works is wasted effort on any engine with a submerged oil pump. But I still spend the thirty seconds to prime the system. Kinda pathological. I know it's not doing any real good, but I do it anyway.

Engines that have oil pumps above the oil level--Buicks, B/RB Mopars, etc. may need considerable cranking on the oil pump to pull oil from the pan. But once you've got oil pressure, you're done priming. Some guys fill the oil pump cavity with Vaseline, others think Vaseline is The Devil Himself. I make sure the pump got some engine-oil prelube, was assembled with proper clearances, and then spin it with a 1/2" air drill, no Vaseline.

Engines with crank-driven oil pumps--Vega, LS, some later Buicks, etc need the air-over-oil priming tanks since the oil pump can't be spun without turning the crank, too. Or just "don't bother" and rely on the assembly lube to keep things happy until the oil pump self-primes.

[dannobee]

Another way of doing it is using an accusump. Fill it up with oil and charge the backside with compressed air. When ready, open the valve, wait about 10 seconds (it'll show oil pressure on the dyno/car gauge), then light it off.



Or use Mike's way if it's dry sump. Done that plenty of times.

[BOOT]

I prime until I get oil at each rocker, sometimes it takes awhile and sometimes I have to rotate the engine. DON'T press down on the drill!

[rebelrouser]

Old school engines with a distributor oil pump drive, I spin the pump with a drill and rotate until I get oil to the rockers and push rods. Lot of Mopar engines for example will only oil the rockers when the hole in the camshaft lines up correctly, so you have to rotate them. On newer engines without a distributor drive, I use a pressure tank and push a couple quart through the engine, while rotating, until I start to see oil on the camshafts, then just fill the crankcase to the full position. I have had to make several metric adapters for some of the new engines. Just did a 5 cylinder Hummer engine, they have a weird metric plug in them, so I just took it out and drilled and tapped the plug in the center to 1/8 pipe. Now it has a oil check port with out buying a GM special tool to hook up a gauge.

[Dave Koehler]

I prime until I get oil at each rocker, sometimes it takes awhile and sometimes I have to rotate the engine. DON'T press down on the drill!

Good tip on the don't push down.!!

Tip #84.. On a BB Chevy you need a dummy distributor housing or the passenger side will not see any oil to the lifters.
Look down that hole. The oil galley is that groove in the dist housing.

[oldjohnno]

Everything that needs LUBE was coated in assembly lube during assembly. As long as the long-block doesn't sit on a pallet for weeks or months, there's no need for PRE-LUBING that's more involved than pouring some oil over the rockers before bolting the valve covers on, and pouring oil down the length of the lifter valley and over the timing chain before installing the intake manifold.

PRIMING, on the other hand, seems to be something folks can't live without. It takes thirty seconds if the engine has a submerged oil pump. Long enough to build pressure, and doesn't require turning the crank. Then you're done. As soon as you stop priming--which is intended to purge air from the oil pump, oil filter, and major oil galleries--those galleries begin draining down. The pump and filter should stay full, though.

GM--Ford--Chrysler--etc. sure aren't making a career out of prelubing or priming their engines.

I think the whole works is wasted effort on any engine with a submerged oil pump.

This. Priming is generally a waste of time IMO. I'd also put fancy assembly lube concoctions into this category, with the exception of flat tappets. The engine will be running on plain old engine oil for its entire life - it's perfectly fine for the initial start as well. Spend the time on something else.