All lubricated parts were installed: crank, rods, cam, lifters. All plugs installed. Oil filter installed with oil pressure gauge installed at filter adapter. Oil pump screen removed and hose inserted into inlet hole. With no rings installed, the crank turned over very easily by hand using the front snout. Same with the cam. No binding.
Inserted prelube tool. Drill is rated at 600 RPM so with a load I estimated 400-500 RPM. That translates to 800-1000 engine RPM.
Old oil change oil was used. Oil pressure was 55 PSI at full speed on drill. Even at a crawl, maybe 400 engine RPM?, I got 20 PSI. That would be expected with old and cold oil.
Oil is draining everywhere from the bearings of the crank mains, rods, cam, and also from the lifter pushrod cups. It took just a few seconds for the lifters to start oozing.
A few observations:
The front two plugs were leaking. I didn’t seal them so that’s probably why. I was hoping that was the problem until I rotated the cam and got squirted with oil coming out from behind the retaining plate. It squirts once every rotation I guess to oil the timing set. With that kind of leak the plug seepage is negligible.
I tried monitoring oil pressure from the port by the distributor. Same pressure. I was looking for a difference before and after the filter.
For an experiment, I removed the galley plug first in line with the flow, driver’s) oil pressure was zero. (A pump without a restriction can really pump!) I reinstalled that plug and removed the other, (last in line) and the pressure made it to 20 PSI.
I realized that there is apparently nothing wrong with the oil flow. So I started to theorize that the Fram filter, that I have learned a lot of people don’t recommend, may have had its element blow open, allowing dirty oil to continuously recirculate. I cut it open and it looked OK to me. (Of course the first filter could have blown. It's long gone.) I also checked the filter housing/adapter oil bypass. The fiber disc had a nice ring pattern from its seat. The spring was intact and holding the disc to the seat. Looks just like it did the first time I assembled the engine.
Another observation that still nags me is the fact the gouges in the cylinder should have made the engine smoke like crazy IMO. There seems to be enough oil drainage that would splash enough oil on the walls to get oil up into the combustion chamber. But, since I have nothing to compare it to, I don’t know if it should flow more.
So, I’m back to square one. I can’t see anything obviously wrong.
So, I’m gonna wait for the machine shop to call back to see what else he has come up with as far as replacement parts. Using a different block that he found is looking better all the time. I’m also going to see how much he would charge to assemble the block. I’m gun shy now. It’s time step back. I just can’t justify me assembling it again without finding something out of line. If it wasn’t the fact that I can’t really tell if the motor is wearing excessively without tearing it down again, I might attempt it. But to drive it for who knows how many thousands of miles and visualize the motor eating itself would drive me crazy.
