KA24e rebuild no oil pressure

[DADZSUN]

I hoping you guys can give me some suggestions.

I finished rebuilding a KA24e for carbed use. I 'dry' cranked (no spark or fuel) the engine for about 60 seconds to prime the oil system. Prelubed the cylinders and coated the camshaft well with oil (using Penn break-in green oil).

The motor fires right up and idles like a typical cold bike-carb setup (rough but stable). I have no oil pressure gauge/light at this time so I pull the oil fill cap off to see what's happening under the valve cover. No oil splashing around. I killed the engine after my 30-45 seconds of low speed idle and a couple of blips. Valve cover is clean and dry on the inside.

I check the oil filter (which was not prefilled with oil), bone dry. I pull the oil pump, it to is bone dry (as are the inlet/outlet passages). Not good!

I see online some suggestions to pack the oil pump with assembly lube / vasoline to build pressure. I also see comments of the o-ring gaskets to be installed between the timing cover and block, that was done.

Any other suggestions? I've filled the oil filter and pump and pumped some oil into the filter passages. I've got a spare L series oil drive shaft and am thinking of bringing the gears off so as to not interfere with the oil pump drive worm gear, then run a drill to turn it. The problem is that if there's no oil in the passages will the pump create enough vacuum to suck oil in via the pick-up?

Thanks.

[zKars]

You must prime the oil pump, it cannot pump air to get itself going. Just fill it with regular engine oil and put it back in.

It is a good plan to do the spin the pump with a rod/ drill (CCW) to build oil pressure and get it distributed now that you've run it dry. Good insurance, not a waste of time in anyway.

[datzenmike]

Set TDC and remove the drive spindle and the distributor/CAS and put the oil pump back on after filling it with oil. Get a long screwdriver or flatten the end of a 1/4 steel rod and fit down into the oil pump. Chuck the other end into an electric drill and crank it up.

I did this on my Z24 but had a spare spindle I removed the gear from and an old distributor shaft. Only took a few seconds and oil was gurgling through the filter, galleries and dripping onto the cam. Motor wasn't turning so I could do this all day if I wanted to.

The rubber hose was a home made U joint.

[DADZSUN]

Thanks guys. No more turning the engine by hand or cranking 'dry' until the bearings get some lube.

I've filled the oil pump and will use a spare distributor shaft (minus the gear) and a drill to prime the system. I'm assuming the drill needs to be set in the loosen/counter clockwise direction to duplicate the oil pump's operation?

What of this dot/punch mark on the drive shaft? I've ignored it as I thought it was only for ease of dizzy timing which I've found easy to do with just base plate adjustment and plug location on the cap - does it have any bearing on the oil pump's operation?

[datzenmike]

The dots lining up just position the drive spindle very close to the 11:28 position for the distributor.

[DADZSUN]

Worked like a charm. The drill only ran for a few seconds (counter clockwise) before I would hear/see oil squirting out of the cam tower area.

I filled the oil pump with oil then ran a modified oil pump drive (worm gear shaved off and a long bolt with the head cut off & welded to the end of the drive).

Thanks to all those who responded.