mudzilla

so i built this motor from scratch new everything, pistons rods crank everything internal. the first start up i found out that the head i was tryin to use was cracked so i used another one and rebuilt it and everything was great starts, runs ....but has no oil pressure so i pulled the pump everything was good.... so i pulled the pan put a new gasket on the pickup tube and cleaned and checked it reinstalled it and i still dont have pressure.....?? im stumped?? any opinions on what to do now?

mudzilla

oh and its a 22re out of an 84 and i put it in my 93....now its efi..

snobdds

How are you determining you have no oil pressure, dummy light or actual gague?

AzStorm

Sounds like a oil pressure sending unit to me.
If the motor wasnt getting oil it would seize.
If it was blowing past the rings it would smoke and run like crap.

xxxtreme22r

Had same problem on mine, doing a search on here for "seized" will show you my problems, in short it was a missing galley plug in the front. It ran 5-10 minutes like that at roughly 3500 RPM before seizing.

mudzilla

well i only ran it at first start up for like thirty seconds then checked all my fluids and the oil on the dipstick was still cold, and full. so i took my filter off and it was dry... today i put another pump on it and changed and cleaned the relief valve on the front of the pump but still nothing. tomorrow i am gonna change the pickup tube with a new one. if that doesnt work its goin in the ditch...lol

flyingbrass

Prime the oil pump. Pack the pump gears with Vaseline. Pull the coil wire off the distributor and preferably remove the spark plugs (so the engine can turn over faster from starter action alone). Crank it until you build oil pressure. Plug everything back in and fire it up.

Oil pumps in these engines seem to eventually get going without being primed, but from what I've read can require an uncomfortably long time to develop pressure. BTW, pumps in some other non-automotive applications require priming, else they'll just spin until they burn up.

Apart from that, make sure you put the oil pump drive gear on and that it is facing the correct direction (splines facing toward the front) so its gears mate with the oil pump drive gear. Simple stuff, but can be easy to overlook.

If priming doesn't work out as it should, consider the other possibilities. A missing galley plug would certainly do it. A bad gauge sender could be giving false readings. If you want to double check what the gauge or idiot light is telling you, screw-in checking gauges aren't very expensive.

PirateMcgee

^you gotta prime the pump! I primed mine by using an oil squirter (like those used to put oil on machine tools) and ran a hose to a rubber fitting and into the oil pressure sending unit hole. Then pumped until oil cam onto the cam. Then turned it over without starting to make sure the pump was working correctly. Pull the valve cover and watch for oil before you start it!

mudzilla

so i took my pump back off checked my gears and they were good so before putting the harmonic balancer back on i squirted oil passed the front main seal into the pump and immediatley it shot out of where the filter should be ( i took it off to check for pressure)....now the crappy part i fired it up..reved it up a little. and bang, rod knockin just found out that the crank that i thought was brand new..was remaned and i didnt use oversized bearings so i think that is what it is....comments please???

weaselman

or running it with no oil pressure screwed it all up.

why didnt you check oil clearances by plastigauging everything... especially if you spent that much money on it,,,

annoyingrob

Pull it all apart, get the crank polished, replace the rod if necessary, measure for bearing sizes, and then plastigauge them just to be doubly sure.

Don't early 22R blocks only have 2 sizes of bearings? Kind of limits your options. Later model blocks have atleast 4.

tried4x2signN

it took 7 posts... crack squad around here...