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primeing the engine.

Was under the impression that the engine was already assembled. Helps to give complete information. Engine still needs to be primed before startup. Up to you of course. Keep it in an airtight plastic bag while you wait for parts. Would have been better to do the assembly at one time so everything could be checked before torqueing parts down. Now you have a dirt magnet as oil/grease act to attract dirt and dust. And your engine is open. A sheet won't cut it.
 
The engine builder gave me a big bag......................When your a clean freak like me she ant getting dirty...............
 
Prime and rotate over the crank to ensure oil to the rockers / upper end. Even though everything has assembly lube, priming gets oil in the galleries so no dry start. After setting up the valvetrain in a new, unfired motor, which includes turning it over to set up lash, spring heights, etc. the lube gets scraped off the lifters and cam.
 
Mine seem to keep enough assembly lube on the lobes & lifters when I prime & rotate by hand with the drill motor driving the oil pump making sure to get the oil galleries full & oil to all the rockers. I always use the assembly lube on the rockers/shafts too.
 
As I put my Road Runner back together, the last two things I plan to do with the engine before start up is to prime the engine and install and set-up the distributor. 4286800 is an oil pump priming shaft for use with all A, B and Gen II Hemi engines. I hope that part number is not obsolete. My intake manifold has a distributor rotation direction indicator cast in. That certainly tells me which direction to rotate the shaft. I think it's also important to prime the fuel system so that the engine starts pretty much instantly and continues to run at least until warmed up. I also plan to start the car in the garage but with the rear end sticking out of the open garage car door, with the passage door also open and my ventilating fan running. In my distinctly dim view, all of this is important stuff...
 
So here's a question for everybody. Do you lube the oil pump before you install it. If not you just spun the heart of the engine over metal to metal with no lube waiting on it to prime itself. Last thing I do before I install the pump is take it apart and inspect it and pack it full of assembly lube. Then when you prime the engine the pump is not rotating dry and will pick up a prime much faster. Just a thought.
 
So here's a question for everybody. Do you lube the oil pump before you install it. If not you just spun the heart of the engine over metal to metal with no lube waiting on it to prime itself. Last thing I do before I install the pump is take it apart and inspect it and pack it full of assembly lube. Then when you prime the engine the pump is not rotating dry and will pick up a prime much faster. Just a thought.

I always soak the pump gears & pump housing in oil then re-assemble the pump before installing it.
 
All it needs is to NOT be bone dry. Which, with any new pump it should be disassembled and cleaned first (easy to do). Then just get oil on the surfaces and it's good to go. An old trick I learned was to, before doing a full prime, spin it with the filter off--slowly!--just until it gets oil to the port. I was told by keeping it from building head pressure it helps protect the pump during initial priming; like most stuff we worry about though I doubt it makes any real difference..but I do it anyway:realcrazy:
 
I like to let the oil soak so that the relief valve gets oil in it's bore.
 
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