Oil Priming System

turboman1

turboman1

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Has anyone built an electric oil priming system that can be used to circulate oil before the motor is started? I was wanting to make one up before I finishing putting my motor back together and thought it would be useful for priming the oil system, for my first initial start, as well as using it after the truck has sat for awhile.

Thanks
Adam
 
I've thought about it myself but decided against it. Basically I use a good quality assy lube and then crank the engine over with the starter, making sure it has oil pressure before it fires. In my way of thinking, introducing oil through another system only increases the chance of contamination...
 
Yeah I used the uberplate(?) engine assembly lube and have two bottles of zinc oil additive to go in also.

I was thinking there might be a way to use the existing oil filter and just use an electric pump with a one way check valve.

The other way I thought would be to use one of the ports on the drivers side of the motor (P-pump port or oil pressure sensor port) with an external oil filter (small one compared to the one that already goes on the motor).

Adam
 
If you modified the filter base and put oil in next to the turbo feed port before the filter it should prevent any chance of contamination.

I usually just leave injectors out and crank it over until it has pressure so there's no load on the bearings before they get oil.

I would be neat to have it tied in with the grid heater relay, but then again usually the bottom end is usually the last thing to actually wear out.

I would see it's biggest advantage to be getting pressure quicker when you change oil. Those few seconds always make me cringe.
 
My G/F's dad used a pressure tank with a draw straw going thru it. He put about 5 qrts of oil in the tank (stainless steel), hook the braded hose from teh draw straw end to the port for the oil pressure gauge on the block, then filled the tank with about 20psi of air. The air pushes the oil up the straw into the engine. He let the air pressure off right before all the oil was gone so that no air would get into the system. This was on a 766 IH tractor tho. I'm sure the same thing could be done on the cummins or any engine for that matter.
 
kino_fab said:
My G/F's dad used a pressure tank with a draw straw going thru it. He put about 5 qrts of oil in the tank (stainless steel), hook the braded hose from teh draw straw end to the port for the oil pressure gauge on the block, then filled the tank with about 20psi of air. The air pushes the oil up the straw into the engine. He let the air pressure off right before all the oil was gone so that no air would get into the system. This was on a 766 IH tractor tho. I'm sure the same thing could be done on the cummins or any engine for that matter.
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This is what I use and worksd great!!
 
Has anyone built an electric oil priming system that can be used to circulate oil before the motor is started? I was wanting to make one up before I finishing putting my motor back together and thought it would be useful for priming the oil system, for my first initial start, as well as using it after the truck has sat for awhile.
Click to expand...

Are you looking for a one-time pre-lube after building a new engine? Or are you looking for an oil-preluber that brings the oil pressure up every time before the engine is started?

--Eric
 
I am looking for one that would do it every time. However, if it turns out to be impractical then no, it would be just a one time thing for the initial start up.

Thanks for all the replies

Adam
 
Do it like the gassers do have a tank with a check valve plumbed into one of the high pressure lines.
For a new engine fill tank externally then air up to 20-45 psi "whatever you want".
then have a solenoid trigger by switch for a manual prime and a thermo switch for auto operation.
And for day-to-day starts the engine fill the tank to its peak pressure and releases it every start by means of the thermo switched solinoid.
 
IowaCumminsCB said:
Awesome solution but
discontinued to do lack of sales
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Use good oil and forget about it! There are millions of diesel engines on the road every day. How many each day spin a bearing on start up from lack of lubrication? AMSoil quit production because there was no market!
 
Another option would be an oil acuumulator from Moroso or Canton. Basically works the same way as the Amsoil unit, but you manually turn the system on by hand with a ball vavle, then turn it off right before you shut the engine down. They also use air pressure to force the oil into the engine. Would work best with remote mounted oil filter system.

Engine Oil Accumulators - SummitRacing.com
 
At the shop we have an air operated oil dispenser for oil changes. We screw off the no drip end, and adapt the dispenser to the oil feed for the turbo. Use this to fill the engine with oil. We do this on new engines to prelube.
 
I could understand after a fresh build but every day? These engines are DESIGNED to last 500k miles without a rebuild without a pre oiler. Why are you trying to over complicate this? Y'all worry more than my fiancé and mother.
 
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Here > AMSOIL - AMS-Oiler Pre Charger - pre oiler ends dry engine starts
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The Amsoil one never worked worth squat is one reason they quit selling it IMO. There's info on TDR about it...if you're interested enough I can look it up if you aren't a member there. Basically, there's not enough oil volume injected to even bump the needle on a mechanical oil pressure gauge...much less bring the engine up to oil pressure.

The biggest need that I can see for a pre-lube system is the rocker/trunnions on CRs. Mine on my '06 were pretty scarred up at 43k miles, and definitly imposing some significant friction. Mike at Lazarsmith and others have seen the same thing pretty frequently.

A local guy just installed a Jasper 5.9 reman (per customer's request). The rocker/trunnions were scored so badly that one of the valves opened, and never closed. He called Jasper and said he needed them to send him a new set of rockers because the ones on the reman engine were so bad. Silence on the other end. Jasper guy finally said, uhhh, that won't do any good...all our rockers are scored like that!

I designed a system a couple years ago that's bullet proof and uses only top notch components. I thought about putting a couple kits together to sell, but at the price I'd have to ask to come out even, the market would be non-existant. At any rate, when the key is turned to the "on" position, an electric oil pump runs for 30 seconds and then shuts off (this time is adjustable via a built in pot). If you start the engine before the 30 seconds is up, there's no problem. After you shut the engine down, the pump again kicks on and post-lubes for 1 min (again, this time is completely tuneable to what you want) to keep sending oil through the engine, turbo, etc.

--Eric
 
I just worked on a truck the other day that had a primer on it. Consisted of a pump like an air dog or fass draws from the bottom of the pan and pressure goes onto the seconf port on the stock filter housing. Works very nice and has been on the 12 valve I spoke of sense the truck was new.
 
For the one-time pre-lube of a new engine, what type of tanks are you guys using (and where do you get one)?
 
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