Engine has been sitting a few years, prime it?

[jmgtp]

The oil pump that is.

This is a 3.5L LX9 that is going in my Grand Prix. I anticipate having the engine in the car sometime in the next week.

The engine is from an 06 Malibu and has 52k miles. I've had it for a bit over a year sitting on a stand. When I pulled the lower intake the cam still looked to have a film of oil on it.

Now, since this engine has sat for over a year in my possession and spent an unknown amount of time at the scrap yard do I risk scuffing any bearings on first start-up? Will it be a dry start?

I see 3 options:

1) forget about priming, just fill it up with oil and turn the key
2) remove the distributor plug and use a priming tool/drill to prime the oil pump
3) fill it with a few quarts oil on the engine stand and give it a 360* rotation to sling some oil on the crank

[bszopi]

I'd get opinions from a few of us, but if it were me, I would probably do #3 while its on the stand, and then #2 once its in the car, prior to starting it up. Might even rotate it several times on the stand just to get oil moving around the lower bearings.

[bob442]

i'd put a few drops of oil in each spark plug and let it sit, and start it up with the old plugs. a little oil burning wont hurt. If you rotate the engine full of oil you could possibly risk hydrolicing it. IF some how the oil seeped past the rings. I would go with using the priming tool on the oil pump. Also, pull all the plugs, put in a few drops of oil and turn it over by hand, if any rust built up on the cylinder walls you will feel it and not be able to turn it over by hand with just the flywheel on. i had this happen with my SBC, how ever it sat after a rebuild. in a old garage, for about 3 years.

Bob

[siKKa]

id just put a few drops of oil in each cyl, rotate it 15-20x by hand, put plugs in, install the motor, pull the ECM fuse and crank it for 10 sec. then put the fuse in then fire that beast up!

[jmgtp]

I've turned the crank a bit here and a bit there while working on it and it spins smooth. Does a SBC priming tool work for our 60v6?

If I can't get my hands on a priming tool in time I think I'd likely just fill the engine and give it a 360 spin on the engine stand to give the crank an oil bath. Other option would be to overfill the pan so the crank is sitting in oil, turn the crank by hand a few times and then drain the oil and fill to proper amount. Dunno, maybe I'm overthinking this.

[60dgrzbelow0]

I've turned the crank a bit here and a bit there while working on it and it spins smooth. Does a SBC priming tool work for our 60v6?

If I can't get my hands on a priming tool in time I think I'd likely just fill the engine and give it a 360 spin on the engine stand to give the crank an oil bath. Other option would be to overfill the pan so the crank is sitting in oil, turn the crank by hand a few times and then drain the oil and fill to proper amount. Dunno, maybe I'm overthinking this.

I'm not certain for your LX9 Engine...perhaps you will be lucky to have an Oil Pump with the slotted design like the SBC V8 engines and the Priming Tools can be found for around $20-$30 at Summit and RockAuto. If not... several years ago, I came up with a design for an OPPT "Oil Pump Priming Tool" that works well with the Hex Drive Shaft driven oil pumps for the early 60* engines because it actually seals well enough like the original Oil Pump Drive Unit when held down with the two prong claw to ensure that oil is making its way through the upper oil galleries under enough pressure to do some good. Here is a link to the tool and instructions on "How to Make Your Own" are embedded as part of these images. {Please note that others may have some alternative simpler ways of doing this that are not so precisely involved as this thing):

http://s557.photobucket.com/albums/ss19/60dgrzbelow0/ANEWV6OILPUMPRIMINGTOOL/

The attached image shows the OPD insert hole into a 1993-1995 3.4L L-32 Engine to illustrate that if a straight shaft as in the style of a SBC Oil Priming Tool were used in this case, the open oil channel galleries leading to the lifter cavities would not have a great deal of exposure to the lubricant... without being sealed via an "O" Ring at the very top of the back of the engine block... hence the complexity of the tool to prevent this from being a problem.

[85erbirdie]

a thin oil is always a good idea when i store engines or pull them out i like to use marval mystery oil if that is not alvailable trans fluid will work its thin enough to move were it needs to go one squirt in each cylinder then put some in a spray bottle and spray 2 to 3 shots down the throttle bodie it also acts a upper valve train lube when added to the fuel just only run about half the normal dose that it says since we have o2 and cats run it in the first full tank with 91 and priming the engine is allways the best idea not spinning the crank considering that oil galleries have been empty for a while and you will never be able to prim the engine by turning it by hand and you will just be spining a dry engine so pull the cap off the dist hole pull out the oil pump drive and if my memory serves me right it should be a allen 3/8 i belive which will be easy to make one to fit on a drill instead of spending 40 bucks a manual oil gauge is a good idea then rotate 360 and prime again all set. Also if you just put oil in it then turn the crank all that will happen is get oil on the outside of the rods and crank thinking about small oil clearances and they way oil flows through them with the three layers that occurs when pushed through the clearnces we can see that it will not get a proper film of oil in the rod bearings

[60dgrzbelow0]

X2^ FTW

But oh...If we could only get our hands on a decent Simtester...and our engine break-in (and in this case...revival) woes would be over...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BASGWcm4yGA&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATrH4MRngjA&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnZkTFMdymU

[85erbirdie]

DUDE that is totaly fr(**&^&%kn asome i want one lol is it to early to start the santa wish list

[85erbirdie]

and a plus is being able to check valve last with fully primed lifters and torque specs chain stretch man got to get one

[60dgrzbelow0]

I'm not certain for your LX9 Engine...perhaps you will be lucky to have an Oil Pump with the slotted design like the SBC V8 engines and the Priming Tools can be found for around $20-$30 at Summit and RockAuto. If not... several years ago, I came up with a design for an OPPT "Oil Pump Priming Tool" that works well with the Hex Drive Shaft driven oil pumps for the early 60* engines because it actually seals well enough like the original Oil Pump Drive Unit when held down with the two prong claw to ensure that oil is making its way through the upper oil galleries under enough pressure to do some good. Here is a link to the tool and instructions on "How to Make Your Own" are embedded as part of these images. {Please note that others may have some alternative simpler ways of doing this that are not so precisely involved as this thing):

http://s557.photobucket.com/albums/ss19/60dgrzbelow0/ANEWV6OILPUMPRIMINGTOOL/

The attached image shows the OPD insert hole into a 1993-1995 3.4L L-32 Engine to illustrate that if a straight shaft as in the style of a SBC Oil Priming Tool were used in this case, the open oil channel galleries leading to the lifter cavities would not have a great deal of exposure to the lubricant... without being sealed via an "O" Ring at the very top of the back of the engine block... hence the complexity of the tool to prevent this from being a problem.

Just a note that I'm working on another alternative method of priming an engine through the bottom via the Oil Filter Manifold using several approaches to pressurize the filtered oils and additves:

http://www.60degreev6.com/forum/showthread.php/47790-Homemade-Pneumatic-Engine-Pre-Oiling-Machine

I mention this because I'm actively posting the new device images as I construct the parts and pieces of it to the same album holding the earlier images of this shaft driven OPPT... so if you are looking for the older images of the first OPPT...they will be at the bottom of the pile now, so to speak.