Re: Pre-Installation Lubrication

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

At a recent NATO press briefing, "Peter F. Ferris" <pferris@domain.elided> was
heard threatening Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic...

>Good point.  I plan on doing this.  Though since the manual calls for a coating
>of motor oil, I'll probably go that far. It may be a few weeks before the
>rebuilt pump gets installed and/or it may be a few months before the motor is
>cranked. I wonder if motor oil would drain out/off the pump.  But as you say, I
>may pre-prime the works with the drill technique.

Peter,

I'd wait to pre-prime the oil system until just before I started the engine.
It only takes a couple of minutes to re-install the distributor once doing
this and will insure you have the lifter galleries and bearings full of oil
before starting.  During priming, I'd highly recommend you prime the engine,
then rotate the crank 180 degrees, do it again, rotate another 180 do it
again, and then one last time.  The reason for this is that the camshaft can
be in such a position as to allow oil to flow to only one valve train at a
time.  You need the cam to rotate to make sure oil can flow to both heads.  It
would be great if you could rotate the engine while priming, but this would
take two people to do.

Do you have the tool to prime the pump?  I made one and used an air drill to
turn it.  I could mail it to you to borrow if you need it (after I get it back
from Rick Wild in Tacoma).  Or I could just make another in a couple of
minutes on my lathe and donate it to the IHC Digest.  You could use it and
pass it on to the next guy doing a rebuild.  Lemme know.

BTW, I used Sta-Lube's moly assembly lube on every bearing (including the cam
lobes) in my 392 when assembling.  I used a thin film of motor oil on the
cylinder walls.  Engine assembly lube is available at any auto parts store.
It's designed to carry the initial heavy bearing loads and then properly
dissolve into the motor oil (as opposed to other non-automotive products like
vaseline, etc.).

Regards,

John L.
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