oiling issue

[irocmike]

87 wrangler 258...long story...here we go...

bought it a few months ago...ran pretty good had a little miss...long story not so long...a few months later i found it to be 3 collapsed lifters...one so bad it had a hole in the bottom of it...wiped out the cam of course...i found it in very fine particles in the oil pan...

my machinist was a moron...couldn;t tell if the crank needed turned or not...when i could look at it and tell it was grooved...after he said it just needed polished...

he kept that crank and i bought a new one...and had someone else resize my rods...with apr bolts in them...

ok so i rebuilt the engine...primed the pump...took forever...so i figure somethin is odd with that...but it primed...my drill was a bit slow so i shrugged it off...

started it up...ran good...had some adjusting to do but nothing big...

however the oiling thing...it takes forever to get oil to the top of the engine...i even replaced the opil pump for giggles...

so i'm thinkin maybe there is a plug missing somewhere to create oil pressure...

any ideas?

[Dukes69]

how long is forever? How much oil pressure is there?

[irocmike]

it can take up to 15 minutes to get oil tot he top...the electric gauge reads about 20psi at idle and 40psi at higher rpms...

the mechanical one i hooked up doesn;t show any pressure until you get higher rpms...then only 5-7...

[Davisrats]

Does cam bearing placement affect this engine?

[irocmike]

if you;re asking about the holes in the bearings yes...i'm not thinkin that is it thouhg...cause it does get oil...just takes awhile...like it;s goin somewhere else...

[Dukes69]

was the block cleaned when you rebuilt the engine? Could be something plugged or partially blocked.

[irocmike]

yes...it was cleaned...oiled fine before the rebuild aswell...thanks guys...

[rick]

Was the oil pump pickup tube replaced? If so, was it confirmed to be 3/8" off the bottom of the pan at the time of assembly? It is possible to "force" it to prime even with the wrong pickup tube, and then the first time it sits for any length of time or you change the oil filter or any other event that drains the oil down will require manual priming of the pump again... Do you hear lifter noise when you start it? If so, don't run it till you figure it out, or you will be rebuilding the engine again. I would pull the oil pan and look at the pickup, I had similar symptoms when I did mine - it had the wrong pickup tube.

[irocmike]

the pickup is the same pickup actually...i even replaced the new oil pump with a new oil pump...i put some lucas in it and it seems to do better...but this is when i found that my lifters are tapping...maybe i just got some bad lifters that won;t hold their prime?

[Davisrats]

Do you get any oil up top? How long?

[irocmike]

yeah it does get oil...but it takes about 15 minutes...it was heck to get it to prime with the drill to...i almost thoguht i was goin backwards...

i did put some lucas in it the other day it seems to do better...i'm honestly starting to think i have a plug missing somewhere...and my oil is goins somewhere it is not supposed to...

[irocmike]

oh thanks for the suggestions guys...when it comes to this thing i truely am ignorant...but i'm gettin an education that you would not believe...i am just about ready to put a 302 in there or somethin...