flyrotary@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

Really hard to draw any conclusions without knowing what 'a little flow' is. At cranking speed it should be enough to make a good sized puddle on the floor in 3 - 5 seconds. Does your first paragraph imply that there was more oil flow before the filter than after it? If true, that is suspicious.

If you still suspect priming as the problem, have you tried to force some heavy weight oil (40 - 50 wt) back toward the pump with air pressure? If there is any significant oil flow through the pump, it ought to prime immediately unless it is a totally clapped out pump.

BTW, are you sure your oil pressure reading was accurate and not just an instrument problem?

Tracy

On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 7:58 PM, The Mallorys <candtmallory@cebridge.net> wrote:

No luck today.

I filled the line out of the engine just after the pump, then cranked it over with the starter. I did get a little flow, but not very much. I reconnected the hose, and added components as I went, checking that I had oil flow after each. Still had flow after the cooler and just barely a trickle after the filter, where the oil should go back into the engine. From this I am thinking either I am not picking up enough oil, or the pump isn’t pumping enough oil.

The only way I can think to eliminate the oil pickup as a problem is to drop the pan, and feed directly into the engine from a container. This will be a little bit of a pain, as I will have to remove the radiator, drain the pan, then remove it.

I don’t know how to check the pump. Any ideas or suggestions? Is there a way to check it without removing the rear eccentric shaft bolt? It was a royal pain to remove last time, and I really don’t want to have to remove it again if there is another way to check that the pump is pumping.

I am not using the apex seal oil pump. All I did was cap off the hole on the outside of the block, and left all the internal parts. I don’t think this should make a difference, but thought I would mention it in case.

Chris