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MG MGB Technical - Packing the Oil Pump w/ Vasoline

I've read and heard from several people that it helps to pack the oil pump with vasoline to generate oil pressure when starting a fresh engine.

My questions is where exactly do you put the vasoline and how much? Do you just fill between the rotors or ????

Thanks for any advice that is given.

Mark
Mark Wasunyk

Mark, I pack the oil pump with wheel bearing grease. Just fill in the voids and reassemble the pump. I have built a number of engines and have never had a problem building oil pressure.
Jim Pelletterie

Mark,

I prefer to use the white engine assembly lubricant that is manufactured by Lubriplate and others. It is a thin white grease that mixes readily with the oil after start up and doesn't gum up the oil filter. We use it on all the moving parts contact surfaces except pistons and rings where we use engine oil.
Just squirt some in pump rotor cavities and rotate it by hand a couple of times. All the lube is doing is ensuring a good seal so that the pressure drop in the suction side of the pump is sufficient to allow atmospheric pressure to push the oil up the pickup pipe and into the pump body.

Dennis
D. J. Broad

I use Lubriplate.

Remove the bottom cover (w/ pickup tube) and
pack the rotor cavity with grease.

All this helps a bunch when trying to build up
oil pressure quickly during initial fire-up after
an engine rebuild or oil pump replacement.
Daniel Wong

I use 50/50 engine oil and STP from a pump oil can, squirt it down all the galleries, and it sticks to everything during the build.

I wouldn't use any solids as they could block small galleries for a while.

Then turn it over on the starter to build pressure before fitting the plugs at fire up time.

Rich

I use Wynn's High Performance Lube Supplement straight from the tube as an assembly lube. It sticks very well. I have a highly modified distributor cut down to accept a drill to drive the oil pump. I use this to build oil pressure, filling all the oil galleries, before turning over the engine.
Phil O

Thanks everybody for your responses. The engine is still a couple of days away from firing up, however, I wanted to make sure that I did everything possible to ensure the engine would quickly gain pressure.

Thanks again!
Mark Wasunyk

I use Vasoline on mine. Pack the oil pump full, and the pickup tube. When it heats up, it goes liquid and blends with the oil. Phil's method is better, but priming the pump with grease still helps to initially start the oil flow.
Jeff Schlemmer

Mark,
I used Red Grease on mine.However whatever you decide to use it is best to get oil pressure before starting the engine up.You can do this by disconnecting the electrical power to the fuel pump(you don't want gas flow)and crank the motor over with the spark plugs out.Oil pressure should come up fairly quickly.Good luck and let us know how things go.
Tony
Tony Shoviak

Grease is just fine. Think about it. It turns to oil just as soon as the oil warms up.
Plus, your WILL change oil after just a very SHORT time anyway.
Safety fast
Dwight
dwight

Get a spoonful of wheel bearing grease and heat it over a gas flame. If you've not tried it, you'll be surprised how it simply does not melt.

Petroleum jelly melts easily but how long is it going to take to get the oil warm? Do you really want to wait that long if the grease is blocking your rocker feed or worse?



Rich

I haven't built a ton of MGB engines (a couple) but I've never had a problem with just using engine oil. If you fill the galleries and oil passages and don't wait a year to start the engine, there should be no problem. With the design of the MGB's oil pump, as long as it is adequately lubricated, it will be fine.

Every engine I've rebuilt has normal oil pressure on the initial startup just about as quickly as any other start. I prefill the oil filter. I've also done the first startup within a few days of final assembly. All of the local rebuilders I've talked to just use oil.

Now, the oil pump on a T-Series engine, that's a different story. It needs to be primed. If I used anything besides engine oil, I would use Permatex Ultra Slick, which is an assembly lube that isn't too viscous, so it wouldn't take forever to start flowing. Before the petroleum jelly melted enough to flow, who knows how much damage could be done?

If you're really nervous about this, there are products on the market to pressurize the oil system before the initial startup. Then you're covered even if the oil pump doesn't start pumping right away. You could probably make something yourself with a compressed air tank and some hoses.
Mark B.

Disconnect the line that comes from the oil filter or oil cooler at the back of the block and fill the oil line down to the pump full. There will be some bubbles that work their way up. Once the tube is full, the pump is also completly full. Reconnect the line. Have the filter partially full (you can't keep it complely full when you turn it over to install it) crank the engine with the plugs out. Within a few seconds you will register oil pressure. Put the plugs in and fire it up.

I'm not too keen on having a blob of grease initially trying to work it's way cold through the small oil ports.

Barry

Barry Parkinson

I posed this question to a long time Brit mechanic and he recommended the same thing as I was thinking - keep the plugs out and use the starter motor to build up pressure.

Unfortunately with the design of the oil pump in the MG you can't use an electric drill to spin it prior to startup as I do with my Datsun and as is done with Chevies and Fords to build up oil pressure.

Taking out the plugs removes most of the stress on the initial startup and allows the starter motor to really crank out those rpms.
Mike MaGee

Come on chaps, there is no need to fill the pump with sludge which can then block some of the small passages especially if it is HMP grease. You only need to put engine oil in the pump, or STP, or a mixture of both but not any form of solids. Lift the oil pressure with the plugs out if you wish or just hit the starter and bring the engine to no more than 1000rpm until the pressure rises which will take only a few secs. The engine has been built with engine oild as a lubricant so is certainly good for far longer than it will take to raise the pressure which lets face it is under no load conditions.

The V8 is different having the pump at the top and here filling it with STP is more than adequate.
Iain MacKintosh

FWIW, the Land Rover factory engine manual specifies to pack the oil pump with petroleum jelly (Vaseline) before installation:
http://www.spagweb.com/v8mini/tech_files/v8_overhaul_manual.pdf

The Vaseline will have no deleterious effects on the lubrication system. I saw this done many times when I was at the Land Rover dealership. Whether it's necessary on a B engine is another matter, and one to which I have no idea! ;-)

Rob Edwards

Spot on Rob. The V8 has the pump on top and does need help to prime quickly. The manual does however say that no other GREASE is suitable. This is correct as Vaseline is petroleum based and is soluble in engine oil. What I was completely against was using unknown elixers in particular the possibility of HMP grease.

The B of course has the pump very low in the crankcase and will actually self prime. STP if you wish is fine.
Iain MacKintosh

This thread was discussed between 22/07/2005 and 01/08/2005

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