Crank driven oil pump - vaseline question!

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:09 pm

Well aware that the external oil pump should be packed with vaseline prior to assembly and running of engine to prime it.

I took my intermediate timing cover to an old friend who has been in the engine building business for 30 odd years. Basically because he had a torque wrench that could go down to 3ft/lbs for the oil cover plate screws on the crank driven pump.

Thing is, he insisted that I needed to pack with vaseline. I told him nah, that's pre1994 where the pump is external. He said no, still do it. When had a little conflan for a couple of minutes and I gave in to his vast experience and packed it with vaseline. So 1) is he right?
2) if he is not right, then this would do any harm anyway?

toughy V8 · Post by **toughy V8** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:50 pm

i used vaseline and it buggered things right up i dont think its a necessity especially on the later pumps i mean i cant imagine land rover ever packed the pumps with vas

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:11 pm

I suspect LR never did pack VAS even into the older type.
When you say buggered things up! What specifically, as to remove the vas I shall have to strip the timing cover off the block again, new gaskets, take the timing cover apart, etc, etc. well you know the drill.

toughy V8 wrote:i used vaseline and it buggered things right up i dont think its a necessity especially on the later pumps i mean i cant imagine land rover ever packed the pumps with vas

toughy V8 · Post by **toughy V8** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:46 pm

it blocked the holes for the pick up pipe on the block because i packed it with tons of vas so i ended up taking the oil pressure switch out and forcing compressed air down the holes till the sump started bubbling then primed the pump again and all hunky dory

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:45 pm

That's a lot of VAS. I only packed the between the teeth on the inner and outer gears and not completely packed, the top 50% if you know what I mean because I was not convinced! I did not pack anywhere else.

I can turn the pump by hand but it is stiff.

toughy V8 wrote:it blocked the holes for the pick up pipe on the block
because i packed it with tons of vas so i ended up taking the oil pressure switch out and forcing compressed air down the holes till the sump started bubbling then primed the pump again and all hunky dory

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:31 am

I battled for 2 weeks on and off to get oil pressure and never succeeded with vaseline

Bought a priming tool from Real steel (£11 i believe including post) 10 seconds with a drill and oil pressure

Buy the tool it is a lot easire!

Ian

ihatesissycars · Post by **ihatesissycars** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:38 am

I packed my pump with vas and used the tool and it picked up oil immediately.

I then would keep going until oil was continuosly coming out of the rocker shafts so that i knew everything was working ok and everything was oiled up prior to starting.

pitsnow · Post by **pitsnow** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 1:18 pm

Ian Anderson wrote:I battled for 2 weeks on and off to get oil pressure and never succeeded with vaseline

Bought a priming tool from Real steel (£11 i believe including post) 10 seconds with a drill and oil pressure

Buy the tool it is a lot easire!

Ian

That would be a big bugger of a dril to turn the crank!

I assume you two are talking about the dizzy driven oil pump?
Or am I missing the plot?

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:13 pm

Well I certainly was!

Is yours not driven from the same place?

Now I also know a crown out in Zimbabwe when I raced out there and they rebuilt engines for the track and before firing them - took out all the plugs and towed the race car around the padock for a while - needed to spin the engine faster than the starter motor would.

Their engines were always super reliable (and fast)

Ian

adamnreeves · Post by **adamnreeves** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:31 pm

Sorry for those that do not know, the interim and later covers, aka serpentine covers use a crank driven oil pump. The crank driven oil pump is of better design than the older external pumps driven from the nose of the cam, sorry!

There is no need to prime the newer design of oil pump, it is self priming. However when I come to start my beast up. I shall take the plugs out and remove the rocker covers and turn over by hand/starter motor. Then startup.

Last night I removed my timing cover and oil pump cover plate and removed all the vaseline.

I was looking at my black & decker cordless eletric screw driver last night and the specs says that its maximum torque is 3.9nm I can use that to torque up the oil cover plate. I have spent a couple of weeks trawling the net to find a torque wrench that goes this low at a sensible price, do I feel stupid, yes!

ihatesissycars · Post by **ihatesissycars** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:06 pm

I was refering to the early style pump in my previous comment.

I too now have the serp front cover and other than put some really thick gear oil in it to help it along a bit during startup it should be fine on its own without any vaseline.

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:12 pm

Oh well I learnt something new!

How is the drive transmitted? Chain, gears or belt?

Cheers
Ian

ihatesissycars · Post by **ihatesissycars** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:20 pm

Eh? Drive?

The crank turns the camshaft via two gears and a chain and on the end of the camshaft is a worm gear which drives the distributer shaft which in turn is connected to the bottom of the dizzy which is then connected to the top of the oil pump gear shaft.

When using the "tool" you take the dizzy out and the tool goes in its place directly onto the oil pump gears so you're spinning the pump up without turning the rest of the engine which in turns sucks the oil out of the sump and up into the oil galleries and so on.

The vaseline sort of seals up the pump gears allowing it to create a vacuum so that it sucks up the oil into it. Once the oil is into the pump its easy street from there.

Post by **katanaman** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:35 pm

ihatesissycars wrote:Eh? Drive?

The crank turns the camshaft via two gears and a chain and on the end of the camshaft is a worm gear which drives the distributer shaft which in turn is connected to the bottom of the dizzy which is then connected to the top of the oil pump gear shaft.

When using the "tool" you take the dizzy out and the tool goes in its place directly onto the oil pump gears so you're spinning the pump up without turning the rest of the engine which in turns sucks the oil out of the sump and up into the oil galleries and so on.

The vaseline sort of seals up the pump gears allowing it to create a vacuum so that it sucks up the oil into it. Once the oil is into the pump its easy street from there.

I think he might mean how is the new pump driven? If so its driven from the key on the crank direct same key that drives the crank pulley for the belts.

ihatesissycars · Post by **ihatesissycars** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:41 pm

Oh yeah! Oopsie!