Evening

Well the big first start didn't materialise. Firstly as advised decided to remove the spark plugs and turn the engine over. Manage to snap two spark plugs

Decided to continue with testing the engine and temporaily wired up oil pressure gauge. 2 turns of the key saw the needle move to zero but when we cranked the engine over we didn't get an oil pressure reading. It had been recomended by other members on here to prime the system before attempting to start

could this be because just the engine cranking over doesn't produce enough pressure to register?

Should you get some sort of pressure reading just cranking or do you only get a proper reading once the enine is running? and if so what sort of pressure should I expect from an untuned 2.0 pinto?

If it helps the gauge is a Stewart Warner.

If anyone could provide some assistance I'd be grateful so I can have another bash tomorrow evening.

At least it turned over which was a big relief seeing I'd refurbed the starter myself

many thanks in advance

I've got no idea what the oil pressure at cranking speed should be but there should be sufficient pressure to put out the oil pressure warning light.

When I was trying to start mine for the first time I removed the oil pressure gauge sender and put back in the standard ford pressure sender, connected a bulb between the sender and earth, removed the plug leads and cranked the engine over.

After about 5 seconds the lamp went out indicating pressure. Only once I was confident that I had oil pressure did i try to start the motor.

I wired the guage in later, depending on the scale you might find that there could be very little movement, to start with seeing a light go out was much more reassuring to me.

John

Easiest way to check oil pressure before start up is to remove cam belt, Fit a 17mm socket onto a drill and spin the auxiliary drive pulley with the drill/socket. With the ignition on and someone watching the gauge you should get oil pressure.
When ready, realign timing marks and refit belt. Turn key in ignition and start engine. When engine hot set timing with strobe. JD.

Using the above method you can, with rocker cover removed, check oil supply to the cam lobes from the spray bar, without getting copious amounts of oil spraying everywhere.

The oil pressure at 750 rpm should be around 14 (1.0 bar) and at 2000rpm around the 36 (2.5 bar). So it says in my haynes manual.

On my 2.0lt OHC it is showing just under the 40 mark.

Is this the other thing you were after.....

Thanks for the answers fellas.
The reason we thought there might not any pressure showing was because the engine is rebuilt with new rings etc it seems to be turning over quite slowly which might not be producing enough pressure to register on the gauge.

I must admit not looking forward to the idea of removing the timing belt as I'm still extremely green when it comes to getting it set up though I can see it would instantly prove the point. Also I'm not sure i could get a drill and 17mm socket in onto the aux shaft.

I'll try the bulb idea first and see what happens. At the moment there are two senders fitted using a brass adapter. This is because the gauge sender has completely different threads to the pinto block so the original sender is being used a as plug on the end of the adaptor.

could this be causing problems?

I am not sure if you should be so worried about a high oil pressure but about oil flow.

The main reason for oil pressure was so that the crank is pushed up by the oil so as not to run on the main bearing - low oil pressure indicates these are worn so will the bearings will wear even quicker. (pressure doesn't need to be that high to lift the oil to the top of the engine).

As ^^^^ said, if you can see oil pis%%ing out from the oil tube (pinto has that?) onto the cam and things, then you should be fine to start the engine.

If you are seeing low oil pressure after running, not cranking, for 10 seconds, then turn off as you are wearing the mains.

I hope you squirted a bit of oil down the spark plugs when you first turned the engine over.

And remember what I said elsewhere about running-in the cam - you DON'T want to be cranking the engine continuously until after the cam's had its 20 minutes fast running.