primeing oil pump??

CanCritter

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have seen folks using petroleum jelly to prime their oil pumps by packing it full of jelly to help oil pump during first startup ...pros ...cons? what do you folks do when installing new oil pump??
thanx
 
have seen folks using petroleum jelly to prime their oil pumps by packing it full of jelly to help oil pump during first startup ...pros ...cons? what do you folks do when installing new oil pump??
thanx
I put some oil in the pump when I went to start my engine for the first time. Same oil as what went in the crankcase. I also half filled the filter. I always half fill the oil filter at oil changes.
 
The old Vaseline trick has worked great in my experience. No cons as the jelly will rapidly become one with the engine oil.
 
I just make sure there's some oil on the impellers and then run an oil pump primer on a drill before firing it up for the first time, turning the engine over by hand a couple times once I get the pump to start making a little pressure.

Never filled one with Vaseline etc. This has always worked for me and I've done an engine or two.
 
I use assembly lube such as this to prelube pumps, for big block Chryslers, I made a tool to prime the engine prior to start up out of an old distributor gear.

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I've used petroleum jelly before with no ill effects, and it does work well. However, I've also found that a big block Mopar doesn't need any help. It will prime quickly and easily on it's own when you use a power drill and a priming rod through the distributor hole, with the pump drive shaft out.
 
Petroleum jelly is the way to go. On BB engines the oil pump is one of the last components to be installed. Your engine oil will stay cleaner appearing unlike w/ assemb. lube. Any unwanted material found in your engine oil will be easier to identify.
 
The Vaseline procedure has been around for decades. I've seen some articles that used Lubriplate white grease as assembly lube, too, but some claim it can clog the oil filters, too. All of that was in the later '60s, before "assembly lube" as such was available. Whatever works.

The oil pump priming extensions have been around for a good while, just that few people looked, it seems. Moroso, possibly, when they were an independent company?

CBODY67
 
I have never tried using Vaseline, I have also heard to pack with grease. I have always just spun the pump to prime the system.
 
Vaseline primes oil pumps very nicely! I was doing so for a couple years, until I wised up and went to 5-30w diesel oil. the less viscous oil assures a good prime on the pump, and I've not had to do so now for the past 18 months, nor look to. Its MUCH cheaper than Lubriplate, which I use now for numerous other uses.
 
I put some oil in the pump when I went to start my engine for the first time. Same oil as what went in the crankcase. I also half filled the filter. I always half fill the oil filter at oil changes.

I do the same, and w 5-30w oil, it works very nicely.
 
I have never tried using Vaseline, I have also heard to pack with grease. I have always just spun the pump to prime the system.
Avoid grease at all costs. Have seen and repaired engines brought to me w/ damage due to blocked oil passages because of grease. Engine oil not displace on initial
fire up starving bearings or lifters of oil. Grease only displaces when adequate temp is reached to liquify it.
 
thanx folks...will just be primeing it to see all works so will just go with reg oil ect..wasn't sure
 
The use of the priming tool would probably negate the need for the packing of the oil pump with Vaseline or similar. When those packing items were much more common, I suspect that priming the pump with a drill motor and extension rod had not been considered, at that time. Back then, the larger electric drills were pretty much only used in the construction trades that needed them. Any extended oil pump drive shafts would have been in the "fabricated" domain of the higher-end engine builders, I suspect.

In the case of the small block Chevy motors, a large/long flat-blade screwdriver, with the handle chopped off and an "interface" welded on so it could be turned by a drill motor, for example. Coming by one with the needed hex for a Chrysler engine would have been "different". A "speed handle" wrench could have possibly substituted for the drill motor.

When looking at many of these things, whether lubricants or how things were done (and with what), you have to remember what the average shop had in it at that time in history. Which was FAR less-well-equipped than many car hobby shops have now. When Vaseline was a common medicine cabinet item, but LubriPlate was a higher-end white lube found in few places.

Back in the '80s, we had a trans tech who had us get the economy size Vaseline jars for him. He used it to pack the front pumps on the automatic transmissions he built. Later, we found a specific "red jelly" Kent-Moore "Transmission Assembly Lube" that we got, which made it more professional, it seemed. KEY thing was to have "instant lubrication" when the assemblies were first used after the rebuild.

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
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