PRIMING THE OIL PUMP & ENGINE

D.Hearne said:

Just my thoughts, but packing the pump with vaseline may be why you're not seeing oil up to the pushrods with a drill. I never pack the pump when I build an engine.

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you misunderstand, when i pack the oil pump with vaseline, i dont turn the engine over until i am ready to start it. its when i am helping someone install an engine that they bought and dont want to drop the pan so i can pack the pump that i run the pump with a drill. a friend of mine bought a crate motor for his camaro, and using a drill, with on old distributor body in place, we spun the oil pump and didnt see any oil get to the rocker arms. that engine runs just fine though with no problems.

OP, normally, on performance builds, the three oil galleries are threaded (it's really easy to do when the block is bare) and use screw-in plugs. Examine your gallery ends for evidence of threads. They may be recessed. If no threads, use the supplied soft-plugs. I prefer to Loctite them in, but it's too late for that now with all the oil everywhere.

Also, on the SBF 351W, there is a crossover oil gallery plug at the top back of the block, just inside the intake manifold cross-gasket area. This is a common plug to be left out and cause unseen loss of oil pressure. Make sure that is in place. Some shops don't remove them but I always did because I installed an oil restrictor into the passageways.

As far as pre-oiling, when I've built racing engines, I use assembly lube and do not touch the oiling system until the engine is ready to be fired. I then use the described pre-oiling device and spin up the oil pump, both lubing the engine and charging the pressurized oil reservoir (in the old days it was called an Accusump), then lock off the reservoir and install the distributor and static time the engine. When it's time to start, I open the valve on the reservoir, sending pressurized oil into the engine, then crank the engine to start. IME, this gave me the most consistent result and was relatively painless to accomplish.

Hope you have fun with your new engine