Concur, no
oil pressure is the first thing you want to solve.
To prime you
oil pump (cheap method with donor distributor):
1 Obtain old distributor
2 Disassemble distributor until you just have the shaft
3 Obtain power drill with power source
4 Stick the rotor cap side of shaft into drill chuck and tighten
5 Remove current distributor (make note of what angle it is installed, this is what you have to retard/rotate to decrease your advance, I can't remember which way is less advance as I usually have my eyes looking at the crank with the timing light... I'm sure someone will know and inform us all)
6 Stick the other end of the shaft/drill combo into the distributor hole
7 Rotate the combo until the shaft seats
8 Apply power to the drill
9 Have your wife/girlfriend/dog/useless buddy who drinks all your beer,watch the
oil pressure gauge to make sure you have pressure, they can indicate this with a boob flashing/bark/or unexpected trip to the store to restock the frig (at this point it doesn't matter what the pressure is, we are just making sure it is sucking from the pan). No oil pressure go to the bottom step 99.
10 If you have pressure reassemble: put the working distributor back in the hole in at the same angle.
11 Don’t tighten it down just yet. You want to be able to rotate it with a little resistance
12 Get a timing light and the same help you have from before (rover won’t work here)
13 Connect the timing light the #1 plug wire and put your eyes and the light on the crank. If your timing light can dial in advance, set it to zero.
14 Have them crank the engine, if it starts make sure you have oil pressure (if is doesn’t rise in a few seconds stop the engine).
15 You at the same time have the timing light in one hand and your other hand is on the distributor.
16 Rotate the distributor until the TDC mark lines up with the hack in the block. The engine should have started. If you can’t find the mark and the start is not freely spinning the engine chances are you have to much advance.
17 Dial in the amount of advance you want and tighten down the distributor. I would give you a number but every engine combination is different, call your builder and see what he recommends.
18 RECHECK the timing once the distributor it tight, it can take a couple of tries to get it at the right spot.
99 If you had no oil pressure indicated at step 9 chances are your pump has lost its ability prime (suck oil up from the pan). Everyone has an idea of how to get it primed…pour down this hole… I have never found a good one that always works. A way that will work but is a pain in the a$$ is to remove the oil pump and pack the pump area with a thick lubricate (I use petroleum jelly, not sure if this is the best thing). Reassemble and back to step 6. You are thinking when I put the engine to bed it worked fine…it was but as it sat all the fluids slowly drained back into the pan including the oil that was in the pump. Now with just air in the pump area it can not build up enough head pressure to suck the oil up from the pan. Once it has oil primed in it, it will work fine.
Hopefully, no damage has been done so far. If you don’t have a magnetic oil plug now it the time to put one in. Any metal that was “removed” will hopefully get suck in the filter or attach to the magnet, which you clean off at oil changes.
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