Worthwhile diversion

I am trying to limit the scope of this blog to just the focus build and eliminate exciting excuses like, I went on vacation here

and that is why I haven't been around. 

In addition to being out for a while, I have been shopping for a truck for a while.  Most trucks live a hard life then when they 95% ruined people dump them on CL.  After searching a while, I found one that was in fantastic condition, except the engine blew up.  I spent the last couple weeks on weekends and after work putting in a new motor.

On the day it was time to start it up I was cranking it with the plugs out and injectors off to get oil pressure and it was not happening.  My friend Seth pointed out that some oil pumps won't start to pump without a prime.  I thought about how to get oil into an already installed and closed up engine, and came up with this way:

I drilled two holes in the cap of a quart of oil.  In one hole I put a piece of small tubing.  I removed the truck oil filter and jammed the other end as far in the oil filter manifold oil inlet as far as it would go (I got about 4 to 6 inches in).  Through the second smaller hole, I slid a needle attached to a bike pump.  When I pumped air into the bottle, it pumped oil into the oil pump.  After doing this.  I cranked the car for about 7 more seconds with no filter on, and oil came flying out (I drink your milkshake!)  Then put the filter back on and saw oil pressure in about 4 more seconds of cranking.

At the beginning of start up day, it was such a pain in the butt to get the pressure gage hooked onto the engine, and I was tempted to just start the car, and give it 5 seconds to clear the low pressure idiot light that I presume would have been lit.  After all, how often does an engine not get oil pressure?  Maybe the higher pump speed would have made it suck oil, but I am sure glad I took the time to do this right.