Oil Pump Will Not Prime

[h2odog]

Replaced oil pump cover gasket and now I cannot get the pump to prime.

I packed the gear chamber with petroleum jelly like the instructions stated, and filled the filter with oil.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[buickmastermind]

We need to know more about your car. Mileage, engine, year, ect. I'm assuming you put oil in the oil pan, not just the filter, right?

[h2odog]

The car is a 1978 Buick Lesabre with a 350 ci engine.

Engine was replaced with a rebuilt long block about 10,000 miles ago.

The gasket was leaking on the oil pump cover and needed replaced.

Yes, there is oil in the oil pan.

Are there any alternative methods, besides using petrolium jelly, to prime this pump?

[buickmastermind]

I don't have any ideas handy, but my dad has done work with a similar motor, so I'll ask him, and see what he says. This migh sound funny, but maybe the jelly is clogging the pump? Let me find out what I can about that pump priming.

[h2odog]

Thanks for your help. I hope your dad has an easy answer for this problem.

[public]

I have done this job and it will not prime if there were any air bubbles in the vasoline. I like axle grease myself.

[buickmastermind]

ditch the petrolium jelly. It isn't helping your cause any. How are you trying to prime it? The method that was recommended to me was remove the distrubutor, put a 'special' drill bit that has the keyway down into the hole, into the pump, and just turn the drill on, and that should prime it just fine.

[buickmastermind]

I agree with the axle grease method, almost forgot to mention it.

[wallus]

Maybe they recommend vasiline because axle grease does not disolve, even in hot oil you will have globs floating around. There's a neat grease called Trans Gel that is as thick as vasiline but disolves as the oil rises in temp, your local trans shop may be kind enough to sell you a tub.Tell them it's for your engine though and not your transmission( they might see dollars slipping away)
Now to my original thought. Is the car in a warm or cold environment. If it's cold it probably won't prime because the vasiline/grease has hardend up. If it's warm then I think the drill setup should do the trick too,providing there are no other problems.

[Lasota]

I had a similar problem with a 1970 350, it would not prime when the oil pump was primed with an electric drill with a shaft. What I ended up doing was modifying a distributor assembly. I took the cam gear off and the rotor plate off the top. Then I put the rest in the block like you would normally do and attached the electric drill to the rotor end. This worked, I was able to build pressure and had oil in the rockers. I think that you need the distributor housing in place. There is a small oil feed to the distributor to keep the shaft lubricated and without the housing in place there is no restriction to oil flow from the block and all the pressure is lost at this point. I have been priming 350's this way ever since.

[Bushmanbro]

I had same problem, found out it was air locked: fix was to unscrew the filter so it was loose, then crank/fire up engine until oil pours out, kill engine, tighten filter, clean up mess and away you go ......works every time........honest .......