[Amc-list] recently rebuilt 343 - No Oil Pressure

[Nick ALFANO <71amx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg,

If you can see a bunch of oil flowing around under the intake from the filler tube, there is where your problem is.  If one or both of the plugs are not in the block, you will loose a ton of oil there and not go anywhere else.  In addition, if your block was drilled for the internal oil line and either  the line is missing without being plugged or leaking severely, you will have the same problem.  I would start by taking the intake as it sounds like you will find you answer there.

As for whether or not you did any damage to the engine.  Running it for 5 min without little or no oil pressure on a fresh engine, I would be extremely fortunate if it didn't hurt the engine.  First issue might be the bearings.  A dry unlubricated bearing run for that period of time is going to get very hot and most likely start to peel.  Second, if you are running a flat tappet cam, you may have already done damage to the cam and/or lifters that can not be reversed.  Cam and distributor gears are also going to be a concern.  

Now, you can fix the oil problem, re-prime the oiling system and start it up, proceed with the break in and see what happens.  Best case is it runs fine without issues for a long time.  Worst case there is you either wipe out the cam right away or you oil pressure continues to drop over a short period of time and you loose a bearing damaging the crank and/or rods..  

If you have the time and want to be safe and not ruin a complete build, you could pull the oil pan and take a look at the main and rod bearings.  If they look good, slap new assembly lube on them and re-torque.  If they look scorn, discolored and have what looks to be fine hair marks all over them, I would replace them before you put it back together.  That can be a sign of flaking.  Next take a look at the gears for excessive wear as well as the cam bearings, lifters and cam lobes.  You may be able to see abnormal wear on the lobe of the cam but if you have only broke through the surface hardening, you probably won't see that or know about that until soon after you get it running.  

I don't want to sound like a bummer, but dry starts that don't get oil quickly typically kill an engine.  5 minutes is a long time to go without oil especially during the most crucial time in an engines life, the break in period.  Better to spend a little extra time and money now than pay to rebuild all over again in a couple months.


Good luck.
 Alfano Performance
4849-76 st.
Kenosha, WI. 53142
262-308-1302
262-942-8271 after 6pm central and weekends 


Message: 12
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:56:51 -0600
From: "Greg DePratt" <gdepratt@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Amc-list] recently rebuilt 343 - No Oil Pressure
To: "AMC/Rambler owners, drivers and fans." <Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID:
    <895794680811120856g158f3441w12147e4c57794f1c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Finally got my 343 back together and in my Javelin.  Fired it up and found
that I am not getting any oil pressure....bummer.  So I checked my oil
pressure gauge and it is working.  Next I checked the oil pressure gauge
tube and also removed the tube from the port.  Some oil will come out of the
port while it is running but not a lot.  Next we removed the distributor and
turned the oil pump with a drill, thinking maybe the pump didn't get primed
properly.  Still no oil pressure.  After scratching our heads for a while we
remembered that the local machine shop sent the block back to us without any
of the plugs in it.  Usually they put the plugs back in the correct spots
before giving it back. We installed all the plugs we had but were unsure on
the two plugs at the front of the engine under the intake.  With the drill
turning the oil pump we see a lot of oil flowing while looking into the oil
fill tube.  Is this the souce of my low oil pressure problem?  Thought I
would ask the experts before I pull the intake and have to buy a new gasket.
The total run time for the engine so far was less than 5 minutes.  Do you
think I could have damaged anthing?
If it is those plugs that I need to fill, does anyone know what size they
are?
Thanks for you help!
Greg DePratt
68 Javelin SST
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