no oil pressure on fresh rebilt 440

[powertrain]

I have a fresh rebuilt 69 440 for my charger. ready to fire and I have no oil pressure. I have tried priming the pump and there is no resistance on the drill at all. hooked up a hose to the block where the sending unit goes and ran it into a bottle.oil just runs out. no pressure at all. i was told there should be quite a bit of resistance on the drill. new oil pump. I was also told the engine builder may have forgotten to install one or both of the plugs behind the timing chain cover. any help or suggestions would be awesome.. thanks

[justcruisin]

Could be a number of things. Firstly ensure you have sufficient oil in the sump, did you fill the pump with oil before you installed it, are you turning the pump anti-clock. Could be a bad pump or filter, air being pulled in at the pickup through a bad seal to the block or a split in the pick up tube, I presume the pick up is clean at the filter. Could be a front plug left out, if a gallery plug has been left out at the back you will soon know about it from the big brown puddle on the floor. Pump gasket incorrect and covering oil holes. Lifter oil gallery exposed. Start with the easy stuff first.

[ottawamerc]

I would suspect its your rotation on the pump cause even if the plug is out you should feel the resistance in the pump with cold oil.

[powertrain]

I was priming the pump counter clockwise for several minutes. I was getting some oil from the sending unit port but no pressure.

[justcruisin]

 If the pump is picking up good oil you can generally hear it as it pushes the air out. Even it there is a plug missing the pump will still offer some resistance - at least it does with a hand crank primer.

[ws23rt]

A thought is that you may have a plug missing from the end of one or both of your rocker shafts.
Another item to check is the spring in the oil pump. If light, broken, or missing than it could bypass.

[will]

is the filter tight? can you look into the camshaft area and see or hear any oil splashing onto the timing cover? Maybe use an inspection mirror if you have one.

[powertrain]

going to do some more investigating today, no oil to the valve train. might pull the timing chain cover off. go a bit deeper.

[firefighter3931]

The top end is oiled through the #4 cam bearing and it is timed oiling. You will not have a continuous supply of oil up there....just at intervals as the cam rotates. If the cam bearing was installed incorrectly blocking off the oiling hole you will not get oil to the valvetrain. 

Just something else to look at assuming all the pipe plugs are installed in the block 


Ron

[moparguy01]

as someone who found a missing galley plug myself, if one of the front plugs is out the oil just runs right back into the pan. also, when priming it, where you spinning the engine over by hand? Otherwise oil doesnt get up to the rockers since it only oils at a certain spot.

[powertrain]

Bang on moparguy. found the problem. as soon as I took the harmonic balancer off and did the prime again I could see the oil pouring down the chain. removed the chain cover and the top plug facing me was in but the plug that goes in the upright position wasn't installed. as soon as I plugged that I primed it again and got 75 lbs on the guage in an instant. very happy.. thanks for all the help everyone!  firing that bad boy up again tmr!

[ws23rt]

Thanks for the follow up. A complete thread.  Problem--answers--- solution.
Those that follow will be helped by this.

[71green go]

Question on same topic.......

I have what seems to be good oil pressure on my Gauge (factory Cluster)....
And have primed the engine also prior to startup, and had lots of oil flowing in valve train....
I have really only now since breaking in the engine for the half hour at higher RPM, and now it mostly is at idle as I tune it better...never driven yet on road
I notice there is no oil on the inside of the valve cover itself....its dry when I removed it for further rocker adjustment
is this normal until the car is at higher RPM to have no oil "splash" onto valve cover?....I started engine with cover off and plenty of oil was pumping and starting to drip onto headers...

I just was expecting to see a wet inside valve cover, maybe because my small block chevys I am used to pump oil through the pusrods and it goes everywhere?

Steve

[ottawamerc]

Question on same topic.......

I have what seems to be good oil pressure on my Gauge (factory Cluster)....
And have primed the engine also prior to startup, and had lots of oil flowing in valve train....
I have really only now since breaking in the engine for the half hour at higher RPM, and now it mostly is at idle as I tune it better...never driven yet on road
I notice there is no oil on the inside of the valve cover itself....its dry when I removed it for further rocker adjustment
is this normal until the car is at higher RPM to have no oil "splash" onto valve cover?....I started engine with cover off and plenty of oil was pumping and starting to drip onto headers...

I just was expecting to see a wet inside valve cover, maybe because my small block chevys I am used to pump oil through the pusrods and it goes everywhere?

Steve

No mines the same Steve oil flows into the rockers really well but little is on the cover when I removed mine, (searching for a ticking noise)

Scott

[71green go]

Question on same topic.......

I have what seems to be good oil pressure on my Gauge (factory Cluster)....
And have primed the engine also prior to startup, and had lots of oil flowing in valve train....
I have really only now since breaking in the engine for the half hour at higher RPM, and now it mostly is at idle as I tune it better...never driven yet on road
I notice there is no oil on the inside of the valve cover itself....its dry when I removed it for further rocker adjustment
is this normal until the car is at higher RPM to have no oil "splash" onto valve cover?....I started engine with cover off and plenty of oil was pumping and starting to drip onto headers...

I just was expecting to see a wet inside valve cover, maybe because my small block chevys I am used to pump oil through the pusrods and it goes everywhere?

Steve

No mines the same Steve oil flows into the rockers really well but little is on the cover when I removed mine, (searching for a ticking noise)

Scott

Thanks!...that's what I wanted to hear!

[moparguy01]

Bang on moparguy. found the problem. as soon as I took the harmonic balancer off and did the prime again I could see the oil pouring down the chain. removed the chain cover and the top plug facing me was in but the plug that goes in the upright position wasn't installed. as soon as I plugged that I primed it again and got 75 lbs on the guage in an instant. very happy.. thanks for all the help everyone!  firing that bad boy up again tmr!

Thats what I found on mine too. Its that bottom bastard plug. God how I loathe it.  

Glad it was something relatively simple for you though!