priming

At the bottom of the distributor hole there is a slot I have an old cut distributor that I put on a drill I left it going for 3 maybe 4 minutes my question is does the shaft have to have the gear on it to turn the whole engine over without the plugs in ???or is it ok to just turn the slot on the bottom of the hole. can you just have the plugs out and use the starter to prime? please answer in detail I need to know a.s.a.p im almost finished with this project and cant wait to hear it run. one last thing is modern oil ok to run in the old pontiacs I have heard there isnt enough zinc any input??????

Spin over the pump drive shaft to prime it, the gear only engages the cam, not necessary for priming the pump. Based on what you did it should have oil pressure, no? You would feel the drill load up as you got oil going.

well the valve covers were on and I didnt want to ruin the gaskets so I took the elbow off the oil sending unit when the drill was going it actually had a sucking effect on the end of that fitting but no oil came out , thats what I assumed would happen I also had a flashlight through the breather hole and didnt see any oil in the passages in the head it has oil in it (the engine) it is a fresh rebuild that has been sitting for 7 or 8 months so I wanted to prime it how long with the drill before you should expect results? I had it on for at least 3 minutes

does the drill need to turn counterclockwise or clockwise???

Pontiac distributors and oil pumps rotate counter-clockwise. Opposite of Chevy...

Jim