oil pump keeps loosing prime.

cobra5laddict

had a bad weekend. i have a reman 360 .040 and a new bulltear timing cover and oil filter adapter without bipass, and a hand lapped oil pump, and a s.s. midplate. here is the deal; the engine is full of 10-30, the pickup is 1/2" from the bottom of the pan, i blew through the pickup before i installed it and nothing was blocked. the oil filter was filled before install. so friday night i tried to prime the new motor, the gears were covered in light oil .. i ran it with my 1/2" drill for about 2 minutes and it would not pump up.. so i pulled the adapter off and tried to re-oil the pump gears with a thicker oil. nada.. so i tried a bit of petroleum jelly and that seemed to do the trick :? i ran it for about a min and pumped oil up to all the rockers then took a short break.. so about 2 hours later i am ready to fire it up and i hit the drill again to make sure she is all primed up... and nada... i spin the drill for another min or so and nothing,.. the pump lost its prime.. i dont get it... i figured i better give it a break and check with some pros before i damage something.. the only thing i can even think of is that the oil pump adapter gaskets got somewhat wet from all the assembling and disassembling .. but they were not leaking oil or anything.. when it was primed i was pulling about 17 psi on a manual autometer mechanical gauge.. i watched oil come out of the dist drive gear on the cam.. so at least i know i have that all good to go and hopegfully wont have dist gear problems.. so why would my pump loose a prime in 2 hours.. i dont get it?

tufcj

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the tube from the pickup to the block is cracked or the threads aren't snug. It could be drawing enough air from above the oil line in the pan that it won't suck up oil. I have seen stress cracks in the tubes up at the last bend close to the block. Bob tufcj

dtaylor73

In your other post you said you had the new filter adaptor without the bypass. That is the same adaptor I had trouble with. I put my old one back on and the problem went away.

See my thread here http://www.bulltear.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5355

cobra5laddict

dtaylor.. are you still having issues with loosing your prime?

jeepsr4ever

Are you using a filter without a anti drain back valve? What type of filter are you using and was it installed dry?

cobra5laddict

Filter was as full as i can get it and then quickly installed to not let a lot of oil drain out. it is a napa oil filter it says made by wix i have another filter at home (stp) i could try that i guess.

jeepsr4ever

try installing the next filter dry and priming it

cobra5laddict

should that be my next step? 1. try new filter dry and see if it pumps up. 2. swap out my oil filter adapter (oil bypass eliminated) with my old one. see if that changes things. 3. pull the pan and check the pickup for cracks? 4. pull the timing cover and check for a bad gasket? i just want to put together a gameplan ... the motor is installed and ready to fire.. i would like to try the least evasive actions first.. i would prefer to not have to pull the motor or remove the timing cover again.. but i will if i have to. anyone that has a game plan of what they would do maybe that could give me some ideas... #-o

dtaylor73

I tried three different oil filters and none made a difference. If I were you I would try the new filter anyway. You never know. I also pulled the filter adaptor off a total of four different times checking the plunger and gasket seal each time. They looked good each time. In case you didn't read all of my thread on this prob, I actually pulled the whole motor and tore it down after this problem first accoured. EVERYTHING looked OK so I reassembled it and finally got it to prime. Problem is it wouldn't hold the prime after sitting for a few days and wouldn't reprime by running the engine. All I can say is I put the old adaptor back on and went to prime it. This time it primed in about two seconds and hasn't lost it's prime since. =D> Good luck PS: I couldn't find the gasket alone at the local parts stores so I ordered a bunch from American Parts Depot online. They cost a buck each I think.

jeepsr4ever

You must have had air somewhere in the system. Now that you have gottne it out try putting onthe new oil filter adaptor. If it still doesnt hold a prime send it in for analysis

dtaylor73

So what do you do to keep air this from happening again when I assemble another motor? I'm a little skeptical about air in the system since the engine accumulated several hours of run time and I would still get the problem.

jeepsr4ever

Usually this is not a problem and usually only found in external filter setups. I dont know what exactly was the cause but if it was a defective part I will definately take action on that.

AMX69PHATTY

In the BullTear Nickle Plated No-Filter-Bypass Oil Filter Adapters, the Pressure Bypass port in mine doesn't appear to be honed or polished. The Pressure Bypass in my original units has a honed bore. Should the Pressure Bypass Hole in the BullTear unit be Honed ? If the surface finish is rough, could the plunger leak or hang up opened, and could this possibly cause the priming problem(s) ? I haven't installed mine yet. Maybe I'll exchange it for a Stainless MidPlate instead. :-|

jeepsr4ever

No their is no need for a polished bore. What you see is wear from the plunger.

cobra5laddict

well i think i found my problem..

i tried a new dry filter and still nothing. soooo i pulled the pump again and took a closer look.

this is a pic of the midplate i got from Bulltear.. if you notice the two gaskets are the same. .010.. both have the gear relief both came with my s.s. midplate kit. it got me thinking.. duh.. the gasket between the adapter and the midplate should not have a relief cut for the gears.. so i wonder if i recieved the incorrect gaskets... i looked in the product section and sure enough the photo shows 2 different gaskets, just like i thought..

so what i did was slap on my old oil filter adapter and gasket and BAM i had oil pressure in about 2 seconds.. 60 psi...

tried it again this morning and it still had a prime .. took about a half second to build pressure.

so maybe MC can drop me the correct gasket in the snail mail so i can button this thing up? or am i way off base here?

jeepsr4ever

I am sorry but the two gaskets are correct and should work perfectly. I suspect the oil filter adaptor was the issue. Please send back the oil filter adaptor. I am curious as to what is wrong there.

cobra5laddict

huh, the 2 gasket you have shown in the product gallery for the midplate are different.. the two i have pictured were the ones included in my kit.. so it does not make a difference if you use a gear relief cut gasket between the midplate and the oil filter adapter? 111!!! now i am more confused.. MC, i will try to give you a call to chat.. I will send back what i have so you can take a look at it.. thanks Byron

jeepsr4ever

We discontinued the bottom gasket after some "self proclaimed genius" :?: installed them wrong and wanted warrantees on all the parts he had bought and broke because of this. Using a solid gasket or a pump gasket on the bottom doesnt make a difference. I am thinking that the bore for your relief plunger is too large. If you have boughten this part in the last 30 days I can exchange it otherwise we will make you a oversize plunger.

cobra5laddict

some people.. 30 days... ha! come on man projects take time... the plunger fit nice and tight.. no different than my o.e bore. .. why would the bore be bigger? so am i S.O.L or what? :smile:

jeepsr4ever

We have gone through these when we get them in and some were oversize by .005 causing the pressure bleedoff to open and slow the pressure buildup. I cant say if this is the case for you but I would love to check out that adaptor and any other that has this issue. Its just the process of elimination.