97 2.7 5speed 382K...

So, there I was, sitting at a red light after a nice 45-minute trip on the highway, when I notice a subtle tick tick tick tick. A quick rev showed it was me of course, but circumstances going on at home required me to push on. Getting home I parked it, and there was a nice pool of oil underneath waiting for me in the morning.

It took me about a month to be able to get to it, but I saw a nice steady stream of oil coming out the front main seal next time I had the engine running. Turns out my harmonic balancer broke apart behind the pully. The front main was no longer sealed due to this hence the stream and pool of oil. Taking the pump cover off showed some nice carnage. The pump must have eaten some fragments of the balancer because the timing cover was quite chewed up. Drained the oil and found the finest of glitter mixed in with a couple of small chunks.

I wasn't happy with a leak down test which showed only two cylinders in the green. Those two just so happened to have some oil spill in there from leaking tube seals. I took the head off and tests showed valves were leaking like crazy. The machine shop found a crack in it too, so I just went ahead and ordered a new head. Cylinders also had a few scratches that I could catch with a nail. At this point I had ordered a new head, timing set, timing cover, oil pump, and water pump. Wasn't thrilled at the idea of putting all of that on a questionable 382k mile bottom end, so the old head went back on and the whole engine was hoisted out.

The rebuild process went quite smoothly. A couple of beard scratchers, but armed with the FSM and a new digital torque wrench, I'm quite happy with the way things turned out. Block was bored .5mm over, crank polished and still STD bearing size, new head went on without a problem. Even gave it a nice touch of paint. It's all now back in the truck with a new clutch too.

But now I've hit a bit of a snag. I can't for the life of me get this new oil pump to actually pump. I crank and crank and crank but nothing in the way of oil pressure. I took the pump cover off and the pump is still dry minus the assembly lube. I pulled the pan off and verified the pickup tube was good. I tried packing the pump with petroleum jelly. I tried back filling from the oil filter inlet. Nothing. At this point I pulled the new balancer out about a half inch so it's off the crank key but still spinning the pump gears. I could spin the pump and get some drips from my back fill to come out but that's about it. I plugged the filter inlet with my finger and spun the pump in both directions. I could tell it was spinning, but nothing in the way of any pressure or suction. Obviously something is not right here, but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it. The parts look identical to the ones I took off minus the lack of gouges. It's not like this is a complicated system. Gears go spinny, oil goes uppey no?

In case it's of some relevance, the new timing cover is AISIN and the oil pump is SKP (because the picture showed it came with the hex bolts (it did not)).

Any help/guidance/ideas would be appreciated. I've spent two days trying to figure this silly issue out and I'm at my wits' end.

When I rebuilt my engine my starter wouldn’t prime the system i pulled off the oil filter and blew compressed air into the dip stick tube while turning it over. Two sec oil came out the filter housing.

Put filter back on and cranking the starter would not create enough pressure to make the oil pressure light go out. I finally gave in and just did first fire. As soon as the engine started the oil light went oil.

I used an ansin oil pump. Worried just like you. When I had oil coming out the filter base I just said eff it and let it start.

@19963.4lsr5 YOU ARE A LEGEND and my hero. 3 days of monkeying around with this and not once did I change my mindset from sucking up to pushing up. Pure genius. After getting some to come out the filter inlet I cranked for 5 seconds before the light went out (plugs out). You had me set in 15 minutes total.

To any who stumble upon this thread, by all means add assembly lube to your pump when taking it out or rebuilding. Nothing should start dry. But don't crank and crank and crank. Don't even pack petroleum jelly. Follow the wise words of this brilliant individual.

In the morning I'm (hopefully) 15 minutes away from starting my truck because of you.

I’m glad things worked out for you.

@19963.4lsr5 is good to help folks out. He tries ..:-)

I actually have an update on this. It lost it's prime and wasn't getting pressure again. I tore all the stuff to get to the pump off again and found out my brand-new oil pump cover was warped. This was one of the only parts I bought aftermarket since it was supposed to come with the hex screws.

Needless to say, I do not recommend SKP for oil pumps -__-