Priming engine only 38 psi oil pressure

If that's not a GM front cover, it's likely Chinese and the oil galley is tapered down to about 3/8" instead of closer to a little under 1/2" and needs to be addressed anyways.
 
If that's not a GM front cover, it's likely Chinese and the oil galley is tapered down to about 3/8" instead of closer to a little under 1/2" and needs to be addressed anyways.

But would that actually cause low oil pressure and no resistance on the drill? Or would that just decrease the volume? I'm looking to find the issue with this pressure.
 
Volume.

Just go buy another higher power drill. Honestly, I never checked oil pressure while priming. I get oil up to the rockers and start that bitch. I guess confidence could be detrimental.
 
Volume.

Just go buy another higher power drill. Honestly, I never checked oil pressure while priming. I get oil up to the rockers and start that bitch. I guess confidence could be detrimental.

LOL. i have had lots of resistance on the drill with my last two motors in other cars. I have oil up at the rockers just not a lot of pressure and resistance. I am going to make a video this Saturday and also just keep the drill spinning for a while see what happens and if that gurgle sound goes away. If not, I'll try to find that noise and can bet that's the culprit.
 
I would almost guarantee you that cover is not set-up correctly for LC2 even if its a OE cover, also I bet the bearing clearences are not correct and it may even have the wrong pistons. I bought a car with a reman engine years ago--it was supposed to be jasper--so I bought it. Tore it down few mons later not sure why...only thing savable was the heads and rods--block was .060, non turbo pistons, non turbo crank-front cover was junk and after I dug through the box off paperwork PO gave me found the ATK receipt. ATK=junk IMO. Sorry you went this route, hopefully it turns out better for you.
 
I would almost guarantee you that cover is not set-up correctly for LC2 even if its a OE cover, also I bet the bearing clearences are not correct and it may even have the wrong pistons. I bought a car with a reman engine years ago--it was supposed to be jasper--so I bought it. Tore it down few mons later not sure why...only thing savable was the heads and rods--block was .060, non turbo pistons, non turbo crank-front cover was junk and after I dug through the box off paperwork PO gave me found the ATK receipt. ATK=junk IMO. Sorry you went this route, hopefully it turns out better for you.

Jasper is junk also. I've got a couple .040" overs here that are useless


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I would almost guarantee you that cover is not set-up correctly for LC2 even if its a OE cover, also I bet the bearing clearences are not correct and it may even have the wrong pistons. I bought a car with a reman engine years ago--it was supposed to be jasper--so I bought it. Tore it down few mons later not sure why...only thing savable was the heads and rods--block was .060, non turbo pistons, non turbo crank-front cover was junk and after I dug through the box off paperwork PO gave me found the ATK receipt. ATK=junk IMO. Sorry you went this route, hopefully it turns out better for you.

I have used them before and it had all the correct parts. Heads, rods, pistons, block etc. From what i could see. I didnt tear it down to get cyl bore or anything like that. Either way, its a three year unlimited mile warranty at least i'll get my money back for that. maybe. Hopefully i can fix this.
 
I have used them before and it had all the correct parts. Heads, rods, pistons, block etc. From what i could see. I didnt tear it down to get cyl bore or anything like that. Either way, its a three year unlimited mile warranty at least i'll get my money back for that. maybe. Hopefully i can fix this.
I hope it turns out better for you than me.
 
I just got my engine in and all. I am priming the oil pump with a drill, 600 rpm's and I am reading 38 lbs on the oil pressure gauge. Is this normal? I thought it was supposed to be around 60 psi.

Also, when I let off the drill I immediately hear a gurgle sound like slurping soup for about a second coming from in the engine. wtf is that?

You know I have read all of this and there are a couple of things that come to mind.

1. You are never going to get 60 psi from a 18V cordless drill on the oil pump.. Maybe with a 1/2 electric drill and even then its not guaranteed.

2. If you get 38 psi with the pump being turned I think you are fine. These damn gear drives are finnicky as hell and if there were any kind of leaks you would not get any kind of pressure at all out of it.

I would get it ready to run, prime it again just to make sure you have pressure, button it up and start it. Watch the pressure gauge like always if its good you will know it soon enough.

Stock pumps don't run a ton of pressure to begin with and its a major difference between a drill and the motor driving the oil pump.
 
I have used a 12 year old 14v Milwaukee cordless and seen 65 psi many times on a few engines with hv pumps. I don't even full the pump with vaseline or backfill with oil. I do assemble with GM EOS though. Drill loads up about 30 sec into priming.

My buddy used my custom priming tool on 2 engines with an 16V dewalt. Each time we see right at 65 psi cold. Don't blame the drill.
 
I've primed a SBC by hand with a speed wrench. Squirted out out of the rockers, fired it up. Idk. I would fire it up
 
But would that actually cause low oil pressure and no resistance on the drill? Or would that just decrease the volume? I'm looking to find the issue with this pressure.


Rotate the crank over 180 and try re-priming it and see what the pressure does
 
Atk here I got pressure drop the cam sensor in the timing cover and never looked back. Wasn't my first choice but the rear end shop blew my first well built engine.
 
1. You are never going to get 60 psi from a 18V cordless drill on the oil pump.. Maybe with a 1/2 electric drill and even then its not guaranteed.

I respectfully disagree. I do it all the time with my 18v cordless dwalt and every time I hit bypass pressure. Recently I primed a stage motor that went to 125psi. Had a Duttweiler oil pump on it with a -6 bypass. To get the pressure down I had to switch it to a -8. The cordless drill had no problems getting peak pressure even in 1st gear.
 
Last edited:
I've primed a SBC by hand with a speed wrench. Squirted out out of the rockers, fired it up. Idk. I would fire it up

Yea thats pretty much where im at after i contact the warranty department tomorrow and do some more priming and investigating. Should be able to see if one of those plugs are missing through the cam sensor hole with a borescope. 38 lbs wont kill it. If it fails to maintain above 10lbs at idle then theres a problem
 
I don't think you will be able to see the plugs. They are hidden by the timing gear but if you remove the fuel pump block off plate and go through there with the scope, you can run the pump and look for oil hemorrhaging from behind the gear. May not even need a scope to see it.
 
3 pages ...
pull the large bypass plug on the oil adapter (1" wrench) and see what spring is in there ,
the NA carbed cars only used a 40# spring
check color of spring and count coils to determine what you have , if its an orange 40# pop in a yellow 60# spring (cheap melling oilpump rebuild kit has all the springs)
heres the spring chart.
if you have a 60# yellow and can only get 38# then you have problems , might need to check that the pump gasket is correctly installed

oil pump springs (2).jpg
 
3 pages ...
pull the large bypass plug on the oil adapter (1" wrench) and see what spring is in there ,
the NA carbed cars only used a 40# spring
check color of spring and count coils to determine what you have , if its an orange 40# pop in a yellow 60# spring (cheap melling oilpump rebuild kit has all the springs)
heres the spring chart.
if you have a 60# yellow and can only get 38# then you have problems , might need to check that the pump gasket is correctly installed

View attachment 295387

Well that seems like the easiest check so far. I will start with that. Thank You! If i remember correctly my last ATK engine the drill didn't really load up either but i had pressure out of the oil feed for the turbo so i shut it down. No problems with that motor. We'll see tomorrow!!!
 
Top