Just a quick post on Priming the Opel Manta CIH engine after a re-build. I have learnt the slightly hard way! so thought i would post my conclusions on priming your oil pump gears/system.
I did a google and found lots of info saying prime the oil pump gears before startup, but not much on how to do it. There was one or two bits of info on getting a long screwdriver and chopping the top off and then popping that in a drill, removing the distributor and popping that into the slot from where the distributor fits in (which is the top of the main oil gear) and then running the drill up to prime the system. Which i did and it whizzed round for a while with not much going on, but the i didn’t quite know what i was looking for it to do! I couldn’t much in the way of oil coming out of the rockers but then as i had tipped oil over them i was not sure. So a few goes and then same thing, so i thought that must have done the trick? NO! as after a few railed start ups and a bit of a screech from the cam after it had run for 30/40 seconds and more oil over the cam to stop it i came to the conclusion that no oil was getting to the cam? What to do? More googleing and not much more info, so lets try the drill again, so a few more goes and this time after the 3rd or 4th go the gears sounded to be running a bit dry, so i thought lets try pouring a bit of oil into the top where the drill goes into the gear top to allow me to try a few more times as maybe it takes a bit to get going?
We after pouring a bit down a tube into the top of the gears i give it another go not expecting it to do much more, but WOW, this time after a second or two it was real hard for the drill to drive the gears round! and i could hear some burbling from around the lifters. So crank the drill up and run it again, this time loads of oil from the lifters, and out through the rockers, but the drill was smoking a bit!! so make sure you use one with a bit of power. Then i cranked the engine over with no plugs in and oil was pouring out of everywhere around the rockers and cam, I’ve cracked it!
Now the car starts, runs (a touch rough as i still need to tune it) but no screeching from that cam. Luckily its an old cam and i have a new ENEM one with new lifters and rockers, so i hope that no damage has been done to the block bearings in my failed attempts. We will find out when she is all up and running.
So to conclude: If you need to prime the oil system on an Opel Manta engine after a rebuild (or maybe one that has sat for a while) get those oil gears filled with oil somehow before even trying to start it up or prime the oil system with the drill option. So if this helps someone else to get their oil system primed, then that will be great.
ps. i did find a post that said to pack the gear housing with light grease to help with the process, but im not sure if that is a better option or not!)