New oil pump, should it be packed with greese to prime?

Buddy's dodge ram 318/5.2 had the oil screen and pickup clogg up. (yeah, pos dodge, its a common problem) I replaced the oil pump but didn't pack it with greese or anything, upon crankup still no oil pressure. I would have packed it because I have heard to do this to make it prime faster, but I was in a hurry and forgot. Would it make the difference between getting oil pressure and not?

I have thought of filling it with enough oil to totally submerge the oil pump, cranking it and once it gets pressure to shut it off and drain off excess oil, would this work?

I know, I know, If I was doing this on a customer's car, it would never happen, but on a freind's vehicle, BS always seems to happen. I put a oil pump in a Buick with a 3.8L, it picked up real quick, but this is a dodge were talking about. It ran for over a minute, no pressure at all, lifters rattling like hell. Maby the shaft is stripped or something. I'm going to try to do some things tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks for the advise.

Conclusion....

The other day I dropped the pan back down and pulled the pump back off. I wish I got a picture of this but it was sent back too fast. The reciever to the oil pump shaft as well as some of the housing had spydered. Spit like a banana, looked like what happens when you use a crome socket on an impact gun type damage. So I spun the engine by hand with a half inch breaker bar to see if the oil shaft was bent breaking the new pump but it spun straight. Finally got the new pump, packed that mofo with berring greese while spinning the pump with a ratchet and got it good. Put it back in and five seconds after start, OIL PRESSURE. The Dodge lives another day!!!!

WTF broke the other pump? Hell if I know. Defective pump I am guessing. In celebration we took our trucks out and burried them in mud. I wish mine was 4x4. The Dodge is 4x4. I swear we can't get it stuck, if just crawls out of everything.... so far.