Forum

[Dean]

got my 350 motor back together after rebuild. primed the timing case cover and am turning the motor over waiting for oil to reach top end - so far nothing. how long should it take before I should see oil up at the rockers? Have not tried to start motor yet. Worm gear appears to be turning the oil pump. Worried the cylinder may get too dry.

[Jojje]

It does take a while.. Don't worry - there should be enough enough oil in the cylinder after the rebuild!
Last summer I primed my engine after extensive rebuild. I kicked it over a hundred times with the other banjo bolt quite loose - nothing showed. Kicked 50 times more - without spark plug of course - not a drop of oil in sight. The h*** with it! Knowing I had molykoted and oiled the valve gear and so I tightened the spark plug and put the ignition on and started the engine (no problem here) and after a while oil spewed from the banjo joint!

[Gwilly]

True it can seem to take a long time, especially when kicking.. i usually remove the plug and put a squirt of oil in the cylinder and then walk the bike around in first gear... that way i can listen to the motor for odd noises before firing.. gwilly

[Norm]

I always tip half a up of oil into the cases before I fit the piston that way there is oil in the bottom of the motor so that the scavange pump has something to pick up. Also undo the quill bolt while you are kicking it over and once oil starts coming from it you know oil is getting to the big end

[Phil Ashbrook]

That darn oil filter chamber takes time to fill , I put dounut magnets to pack the space out , I also pe-fill the timing chest and crank case to speed things up as running the engine with no oil in the timing chest can seize up the camshaft bushes as happened to me on a hot day as I thought it would fill up much faster than it did , it would be nice to have a mini flow meter on the rocker oil pipe , a hitchcock pressure relief valve system would help as well . If you have new rings and are worried about the bore being a bit dry after many kicks ..just give a few pumps of the oil can in the spark plug hole as it can take a bit getting the oil to fling off the big end to the underside of the bore , dont use SAE 60 for running in piston and rings as my engine tightened up fast .I used cheap supermarket oil for running in the first 100 miles and flushed it out for the good stuff including a petrol wash for the filter , I feel this is critical for long working life of the engine as I have spent a fair bit of money getting my 40 bhp .

[PeteF]

There's a couple of mentions of priming the timing case on this thread as if that will speed oil delivery to the top end.
The oil goes VIA the top end and descends to the timing case via the push rod tube so priming the timing side won't do anything to speed oil to the top end.
If you have oiled everything properly as you assembled the engine (including pre-soaking the filter) you can start it and run for the few seconds at tick over that it takes to circulate the oil. One second at tick over is worth an awful lot of kicking.

[Norm]

Peter why wouldn't you want to put oil in the timing chest, only takes a few seconds and all you timing gears are then running in oil.Can't see why when you are building a motor why you wouldn't put half a cup of oil in the sump to help prime the scavenge pump. It can take several minutes of running to get oil up into the big end, get oil flowing across the floor of the motor and finally get picked up by the scavenge pump and then get pumped up to the rockers and finally drop down into the timing chest. By this time your timing gears have been churning around oiless for a couple of mins, but each to their own

[PeteF]

Norm, I wasn't suggesting you don't fill the timing chest.
Reading posts on this thread it looks to me like people think that by doing so it will speed the flow of oil to the top end - not so.
Your suggestion of a cupful in the sump would get oil to the rockers quicker of course.

Generally I think people get paranoid about oil supply to the top end. Just think what exposed valve gear had to contend with - a squirt every now and again. Yes, I know the oil is a coolant as well but rockers don't need a great deal of oil for lubrication. I have an agricultural Lambordini 8 HP aircooled engine with only splash feed to the rockers and it manages fine even though the rockers always look very dry. (I actually give them a squirt ever time I start it, but it wasn't designed to need that)
The Bullet design, where all the oil circulates via the top end, is a rarity in designs of it's type. Generally there is a T off on the return to the tank and only a small percentage goes to the rockers.

[Dean]

thanks guys, guess I'm just being a little overcautious as this is my first experience with an enfield rebuild.