I need someone to please walk me through, step by step, how to prime a new motor with oil. No detail is too small. Assume I don't know anything at all. I'm getting ready to fire a mild street/strip 440 soon.

I need to know everything about how to do this. Thanks for anyone willing to write up step by step instructions. It will probably help a lot of other people too.

1. Put oil in the engine
2. Pull distributor, mark its location for re-install.
3. Insert primer rod through dist hole and seat in oil pump
4. Connect drill and run it in counter clock wise for several minutes
5. Remove rod and replace disributor
6. Start car

I am sure there are other little things you can do and others will point them out, but I have done it this way for 40 years and never had a dry start or problem.

having just done this for feets, it is a bit fresh in my mind.

mark the distributer in two places to the block.
pop the cap
mark the rotor point.

pull the distributer
mark the slot orienation so you can put that back right.
pull the slot/gear

then spin up with a drill counter clockwise to prime.

then put the gear back and make sure the slot lines up where you marked.
then you can get the distributer back in right.

Thanks for the help and response guys. Four questions I still have are:

1) What specific length and size hex do I need to put on my drill to mate up with whatever I'm turning over in the motor?

2) How beefy a drill do I need to be able to turn over whatever it is I'm spinning in the motor?

3) What is the thing called I'm mating the hex up to to turn over in the motor?

4) Should I rotate the motor with a breaker bar every so often while I'm priming it with the drill?

Thanks again for the help!

it does not have to be tdc if you mark everything I pointed out to mark.

if you spin it over, mark the harmonic to the motor in 2 places as well so you can line it back up for where it was.

it may be hard to spin it with a breaker bar.

IMO a he&& of a lot easier to work with TDC locations and having the intermediate shaft slot lined up with the engine center line. Pay attention it is not confusing and it is fool proof.

Use a 5/16" hex rod about 2' long, and at least a 1/2" drill. I burned up a 3/8" drill pretty quick when I tried using it.

OK, again thanks everyone. One more thing I'm not clear on though. The distributor and gear are out, have never been in yet.

So do I still need to worry about TDC? Or is that something for me to straighten out before install the distributor and rotor and I fire up the motor that has nothing to do with priming the motor with oil?

Again, thanks for your patience everyone.

if the distributor has never been in yet, then this is no issue. you still have to get it in and set it to an approximate initial timing. this needs to be done regardless, so there is nothing you need to do with this first. prime, and then set your distributor timing as normal.

to prime, you need a beefy 1/2" drill. have the plugs out and have someone rotate the engine a couple of times while you are doing it. that can be a good time to make sure oil is getting to both cylinder heads as well, as through rotating the engine, you will expose the head oiling passages in the #4 cam bearing.

Take plugs out, bump starter over at the starter relay till you feel pressure building on your thumb on #1 cyl (front/dr side) then turn the crank more cw w a breaker bar & 1&1/4" socket till the timing marks (the slit) are at TDC then go (1) more complete revolution back to TDC which is overlap on #1 & prime it & check that the pass valvetrain is being oiled then turn it still going cw (1) more complete revolution back to TDC plus a quarter turn (5.694") around the circumference & preoil some more & check that the dr valvetrain is getting oil. Back the dampener up CCW 5.694" to TDC & a bit more to 10BTDC. Set the dist in so the vac can is roughly in it's correct location (has room to b turned each way) AND the rotor is pointing at the #1 cap terminal as it's shown in the OE factory manual and plug #1 plug wire into that cap terminal and if the rotor is not in the OE location reclock the inter shaft till it is then route the rest of em CCW from that point 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 then w the dist somewhat snugged take the cap back off & turn the dist housing slightly till the magnet is dead even w the nearest reluctor tooth checking that the rotor is still under or nearly under #1 cap terminal. I would then take off the rocker arm assy's/pushrods & goop (or re goop) the lifter bottoms/cam lobes as all that turning will take off quite abit of precious lube & even if solids your adjustment will not ch just from a carefull R&R. Read "break in secrets" at www.mototuneusa.com. 1 guy to add trans fluid 1 guy to man the dist/tim light 1 guy on top to check for fuel leaks 1 guy underneath to check for addit'l leaks You in dr seat to goose the throttle watch the gauges shout orders. shop fan in front of rad, front end jacked way up for air pockets rear tires just off the ground on jack stands and a heavy duty hyd floor jack under/just touching the bottom of the 3rd mem for addit'l safety, start it in gear to load it, any probs shut it off immed/fix it/restart to 2500 for 30 minutes vary the rpm, goose it repeatedly, light breakin springs, breakin oil, #1 #1 #1 lifters on mockup should fall back onto the lobes under their own weight w a resounding "thunk" in lifter bores cleaned w brake kleen/lightly lubed w WD40 when you lift each one up off of it's lobe w your finger & let it go & if not, MUST hone the bore, batt charged,several shots of gas w accel pump EDIT stat OUT

This is great stuff everyone, thanks so much!

Now I just need to get a 1/2 drill and the 5/16" hex. Too bad my wife already got me my father's day present. Maybe she will give me the gift of time to work on my car that day too.

I'll probably have some more questions then. Thanks again everyone!

I bought a small block priming rod several years ago from Summit. I've used it on 4 different motors. nice to have.

If you are not using a roller cam, make SURE you use the specialty break-in oil!!

If you don't you may be tearing the engine down again.

Dave

Bought my priming rod from Mancini. I actually primed my eng by hand. I filled the oil pump with STP and then put a ratchet and socket on the priming shaft and started turning it backwards. After about 30 seconds it got tight and I had over 50 lbs pressure at the gauge. Of course a drill is the best way to do it but my 1/2" drill is on the blink so I tried this and it worked. But it wore me out after a few minutes. Ron

May have already been mentioned.... but I don't want to read the whole thread.

When I primed my 452, I wasn't getting any oil to the rocker gear at first (was pretty worried for a few minutes, actually). Then I turned the motor over a quarter rotation and whack! oil to the rockers, and how! So my reccomendation is to prime, then rotate a quarter to half turn, and prime some more.

A few things people haven't mentioned...

You can use a 3/8 drill but it will need to be 120 volt. Cordless drills don't have the torque to spin the pump fast enough to build much pressure.
I like using my heavy duty 1/2" Milwaukee drill. It only spins 800 rpm with a 14 amp motor. The removeable handle that goes over the snout of the drill is real handy.
Go easy on the drill. If you run the drill at full speed and it slams full pressure on the oil pump it will try to rip the drill out of your hands. Spin it up at a moderate speed and allow the drill to take up the load.
I use a piece of 5/16" hex stock as a priming rod. It's dirt cheap. If you take this approach be sure to put it down in the hole for a test fit. Make a note of where the rod passes through the distributor bushing in the block. Wrap some tape around the stock so it doesn't chew up the bushing.

When Andrewh and I prelubed the Imperial it simply wasn't possible to get to the crank well enough to turn the engine over. After we built up oil pressure I jumped the starter relay to turn the engine with the starter while he continued priming with the drill.