360 Small Block Oil Priming

I was just thinking I haven't ran the 360 engine in my Charger in years but it's getting close to firing up. The engine has about 40K miles since rebuilt. I'm going to put in new oil and filter, remove spark plugs and shoot a little oil in each cylinder. I'm planning on removing the distributor and oil pump gear and priming oil pump while rotating the crank through a couple of revolutions. I changed valve cover gaskets and poured oil on rockers. Then I was going to crank it over for a few seconds with no spark plugs. As I was sitting here , I thought I'd change the oil pressure sending unit. Then I thought, I wonder if the oil system can be primed through the oil pressure sending unit port using a small pump, hose and a quart of oil? Is this possible? Just wondering if it's been tried. I've built several engines but never thought of it before. Thoughts?
Terry

Without more details your big time overthinking this.

You dumped some oil on rocker shafts recently, so I would mark and pull intermed shaft and prime it until you see plenty of pressure, then put it back together.

You may likely be OK as is & just fire it up but if you wanted to preoil (& I smell OCD!) I would get the dampener on 90 deg (1/4 turn) before #1 TDC compression (& likely there are (3) partial slit marks at 90 deg intervals in addition to the full TDC slit) & preoil one bank then turn to 20 ATDC #6 compression & preoil the other bank then back up the dampener slightly to 15 & line up the magnet with the tooth that places the rotor under or near under the #6 plug wire cap terminal with as you know the can on the pass side with room to be turned either way. best is to clock the intergear so the rotor is rearward & slightly toward the dr side for #6 which likely will have the forward edge of the intergear notch slightly to the pass side, not a deal breaker by any means but it lets the plug wires nestle/route the neatest with the shortest lengths possible & maintains the OE positioning (every little bit helps & keeps Mr Murphy at bay).

I have lost count of the number of engines I got running that had set for decades without all this hoopla.

But yes, you can preoil thru the sending plug hole, I'd probably drain some from the pan and pump it back in thru the sending unit hole so you don't overfill.

Depending on the grade oil and the temps you might be able to use one of those pump up gallon size garden sprayers as your pressurized oil source.

You might want to think about adding an accumulator so you can easily do this in the future.

i built a pre-oiler from an empty R-12 can. it has a sight tube on the side with a "start" mark on the bottom. i fill up to the mark, then add however many quarts the system holds [with, or without, the filter capacity]. add 50lbs of air, then connect to a pressure port. slightly open the valve at the bottom while rotating the engine over until the sight tube gets to the bottom mark. disconnect the tank, install proper fitting in port hole, fire up, instant oil pressure. i have used this for years and it has worked flawlessly.

I have also started many engines that sat 10 years or more by just gassing them up and cranking until they started. These were stock engines. If it had a big camshaft and big springs I would be tempted to try to get some oil on the camshaft. Rod and Main bearings will hold oil indefinitely.
Maybe squirt some oil in the cylinders, just a small amount though because you don't want to hydrolock or foul a plug.

If it's been sitting a long, long time you may want to drain a little out of the crankcase to see if there's any water.

But much of this hoopla is just people letting their imaginations run wild. And it's easy to imagine things to do if you don't have to do them yourself!

R.

Why would you squirt oil in the cylinders?

If you are going to do it, use 2 stroke oil.

I should have made clear when I put a little oil in the cylinder, I crank the engine over by hand with the plugs out so as not to cause a hydraulic lock. Yes, I too have cranked over engines that have sat for years without pre oiling. Just considering what to do to avoid any major problem. The car has been inside in a climate controlled shop with gas drained from tank. I've replaced all hoses, fuel pump, new Thermo Quad carb (not rebuilt), etc. It will have new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc. when I want it to fire. When this one is done, I have another 74 Charger waiting to go into my shop, so I want no problems upon start-up with this one.. The next Charger, it's an unknown - I paid $900 for it an drove it home several miles. It has a 360 /4bbl / auto trans (reverse manual valve body for some reason) in it. No rust. I'm going to make it the way I want it. Fuel Injection, overdrive trans, a/c, etc. Long winded post but just thinking and looking ahead to the next one and trying to avoid problems with the one I'm currently working on. Thanks.

that ain't a long winded post & avoiding problems is what we are all about. Knowledge is power, Take what you need & leave the rest.