priming the oil pump

I believe I found my issue. When we opened up the engine yesterday, we notice that the builder had used lots of black RFV when putting the engine together.

RE: the head bolt you're using in the hole where the oil passage is might be too big or does not have a taper on it to allow oil to get by the head bolt and up into the rockers on that side. If you're running head studs, that may very well be the problem.

I found that the head bolt hole had some RTV at the bottom.

Is there an easy way to test or do I need to put the engine back together?
Thanks,
Dave W.