pre oil lifters?

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j.d.duggan

j.d.duggan

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I,ve allways put my hyd. lifters in a oil bath for a day or two and let them soak,get the air out of them,on small block chevy's.is this what you guy's do on a mopar?I read something on here about not doing it,something to do with the stationary rockers?please help.thanks
 
Just dunk them. Soaking them is unnecessary. You’ll bleed the air out during priming.
 
on the priming,someone said I needed to loosen or pull the filter then spin the oil pump till oil cam out of filter hole,then replace filter and prime more till oil is coming out of the top of motor,turning 90* along the way.Is this correct?
 
I wouldn't loosen the filter up. That would make a mess quick. Just spin the pump and slowly turn the motor over a couple times. It's always worked out fine for me.
 
I don't think it matters too much if you soak the lifters or not but pre-oiling the engine is mandatory . Put assembly lube on the lobes and lifters . Before start-up , put a hex tool on the oil pump and turn pump clockwise if a s.b., counterclockwise if a b.b. Rotate engine by hand until you see oil on rockers . this may take some time because rockers get oil every other revolution . I suggest an oil pressure guage directly on the block so you can see the pressure directly . the more you rotate the motor and turn the prime tool the more likely the lifters will fill with oil . Good luck !
 
I was planning on building a tool to spin the pump.Is there someplace I can buy 5/16 allen stock in long lengths or does someone sell a tool for that?
 
I cut the end off an old Allen wrench and welded it to a piece of round stock long enough to reach over the distributor hole. That’s one of my best tools.
 
If you are a good welder fab guy, a guy I know welded a allen wrench on a rod and I don't know if he dunked it in cold water or what but it snapped off in the pump, shattered and he had to pull the pan & pump to get it out, not really worth it for $12.00.
 
that's what I did my hole life,owned my own shop for 30 yrs.problem is knowing what metal your dealing with.stupid people get lucky everyday and get away with welding stuff together and it works.I have enough knowledge not to try it.grainger shows they have the 5/16 stock in 3' sections for sale,I'll check it out today.how long is the tool you buy from summit or jegs?
 
Live and learn....I can’t possibly be the only stupid one here. Lol.
My point is if you don’t want to drive 3 hours or wait a week for delivery, one can be made if it’s done well.
 
did not mean to call anyone stupid,the correct word is ignorant.Just like me on these mopars.I have not messed with them enough to know the simplest things.please forgive,thanks:lol:
 
I just took an old pump drive and ground all of the teeth off of it so it would spin freely. I had a long flat screwdriver that was junk, so I sawed the handle off of it and put that in a drill to turn the oil pump drive that I made. Coutry fols got country ways! Que the Hank Jr. song......lol.
 
Do NOT fill the lifters with oil!!
Most lifters have a plunger travel in the order of .200inch. And if you have non-adjustable arms, during the valve gear install,your pushrods are supposed to depress that plunger to around half of that. If this does not happen due to a hydraulic lock in the lifters; you may be driving your valves straight into the piston crowns.
But even if you have enough PV clearance, the valves will not fully close and your compression could be as little as nothing. So during the initial start-up that extremely low-compression engine will crank and crank and crank, throwing all the cam break-in paste off. And if you're not figuring it out, you will tear your hair out. Then when it finally does start, with little or no break-in lube left on the lobes....... who knows what lobes will survive.
Leave the lifters empty, but make sure they spin freely.
Mopar LAs have to be primed with the cam in two specific orientations so that oil will go up to the top-end and fill the Rocker-shafts.One position for the passenger side and a different position for the driver's side. During this procedure, the lifters will get pretty much filled also.
Break the cam/lifters in, then worry about clatter and lifter rotation.
 
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brian6pac said:
If you are a good welder fab guy, a guy I know welded a allen wrench on a rod and I don't know if he dunked it in cold water or what but it snapped off in the pump, shattered and he had to pull the pan & pump to get it out, not really worth it for $12.00.
Click to expand...
Never having primed a SBM, is there any reason you could not use one of these Allen sockets with a long 3/8" drive extension on it? Plug a 3/8" drive electric/air wrench into it and there's your priming tool. ?
husky-sockets-h3dhbs516-64_1000.jpg
 
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You don't want it sticking in the pump and your ext comes off of it when you pull it out
 
if you do pre oil your hyd lifters they act like solids and can bend things
preoiling is ok if you slowly rotate the engine and stop every 90 degrees or so to let the springs bleed them down
go around at least twice to bleed them all
lots of good advice in this thread- sort out the good ones
 
thought about the allen socket,would'nt fit thru the bushing.went to grainger today and bought a 3' stick of 5/16 allen stock for $10.96,should be enough to make at least two tools.will check tomarrow to see how long it needs to be.
 
Tool is easy.. get a 2'-3' long mild steel rod from the hardware store. 5/16" diameter. Hammer flats on one end in a hex shape... cut to desired length.... takes 2-3 minutes. No welding, sockets, etc. Not a perfect fit but quite adequate for turning at 500-600 RPM with a drill.
 
Take your lifters after soaking and see if they compress any. If they compress some, like 1/8", you should be OK. Just don't put them in an oil bath and pump all the air out, like in the old days and stock engines.

As for cam lube, I strongly encourage you to get some moly based cam lube to use on the lifters and lobes, not just the standard assembly lube.

Once lubed and assembled, but before the intake is bolted on, mark the pushrods with a marker. Rotate the engine over by hand a couple of times, and check all your marks on the pushrods to see that they have rotated at least a little bit.
 
Just be a man and run solid lifters. Problem solved.
 
I built my own, cut the gear off a stock shaft, welded a push rod to it.
The reason I did it, it was cheap and I had the parts, the second reason is I did not want to use a piece of hex stock and take a chance of destroying the distributor bushing in the block.

RD3KL9.jpg
 
I bought that oiling Shaft Tool the first time I did this and it came in handy dozens of times. Even when I helped a customer break in his 403 Oldsmobile 6.6 for his Trans Am and use the same thing.
I usually have my wife run the drill with the shaft at a medium slow speed and nice and steady. She's done it with me so many times now that she calls out there it is! LOL when I turn the motor and she can feel it kind of speed up when the oiling holes line up and then I let it sit there as soon as she says that and sure enough is in the left or the right side shaft will start pouring oil out and I scream stope! Before it starts overflowing over the head. And then I turn it a little bit and have her continue and then as I slowly turn it the wine of the drill will pick up when it hits the other oiling hole and the other side shafts will start oiling. And then we're done. or I should say then we turn it to the top dead center on number one firing so we can set the distributor correct. I went out to the garage and took a picture of mine next to a measuring tape in case you try and make one it looks like they're 16in long. For the price and their importance I would just buy one..
IMG_20190211_174612.jpg

No offense but sometimes I feel my wife knows more than a lot...
 
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