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It never seems to end with the Project Painintheass Small Block 406.
After an almost-all nighter and a most-of-the-day-er, I was priming it yesterday in preparation to fire it up. I had the drill going a mile a minute and I got good oil up through the rockers on the passenger's side of the engine (cyls. 2,4,6,8) within a minute or two.
The driver's side, though, (cyls. 1,3,5,7) was a little different. I kept spinning the pump and spinning the pump and about the best I could get on that side was a little trickle out of both rockers on No. 7 and a slightly smaller trickle out of the intake on No. 5 (the three rearmost rockers on the driver's side.)
I don't want to start the engine in this condition and I can't think of an easy answer. Any ideas? (All my ideas aren't pretty.)
did you rotate the engine with a wrench while you were priming it? you are alright because if oil got that far you should be ok. also if you have stock rocker arms oil the pivot good before you start the engine.:chevy
What are you using between the drill motor and the oil pump shaft?
The same old HEI distributor that has been modified for preoiling purposes I've used numerous times before. It's just strange that it's only the driver's side. Lots of pretty oil bubbling out on the passenger's side...
OK. It's not the problem I suspected. I have to agree with the above, that you should have plenty of oil in the system for starting. I DO share your frustration over why it doesn't oil equally on both sides. I think you're OK. Good luck.
Went home at lunch and started it up with the valve covers off. Thinking I'd readjust the rockers if necessary.
Lo and behold, oil to the top end on both sides. A gusher on both sides where yesterday, after 20 minutes of priming, there was harldy a trickle on the one side. WTF?
Still have a little noise, though. Sounds like something randomly banging around/scraping around dinging around someplace.