rebuild, no oil pressure, 180 out

[Vanagoner]

I got a rebuilt engine for my westy, put it in, turned it over (I was purging lines) and no oil pressure showed on the gauge, no evidence of oil under the valve cover.  It has assembley lube smeared in it. head gasket is intalled correctly (notches right of hump).  I don't know if I got the oil pump installed correctly, but I assumed it would either go in right or not.  I haven't pulled the vac. pump yet, or tried turning the intermediate shaft on it's own.  suggestions?
  Much to my chagrin, I found that my flywheel mark is 180 out from the cam and pump.  Is it possible to pull the timing belt and work the crank in some sort of sequence to get it past the valves and back to home? or must I pull my tranny out?

[Jet A]

is it a 1.6?

You should be able to turn the head and pump to TDC, then spin the crank around after the timing belts removed. just use a wrench and not the starter. that way if you hit something, youll know and no damage will occur.

About the oil, is there oil in it? If so, pull the sensor on the side of the head and see if its pumping oil out there. pull the filter and check to see if its full of oil. it takes a bit, to fill the filter and then the motor. After i did my rebuild, i poured a little in each cylinder, and then a little bit on the cam as it was being cranked. keeping everything nice and happy till it gets oil pressure. Pull that filter and check it.

[Vanagoner]

yes, plain jane 1.6 mech.
Thanks for the advice-  I know what to look for now.

[Vincent Waldon]

As far as I know there is no "safe" spot to turn the cam where you won't have valves kissing pistons if you then rotate the crank independently.

My usual process here is to loosen the cam saddles so that the cam lifts... this allows all the valves to retract.   It's then safe to rotate the crankshaft.

[Vanagoner]

just raise the saddle nuts up gradually all together?  I am worried about wrecking my cam if I do it wrong.

[Vincent Waldon]

On a diesel there are 5 bearing caps.  You can loosen 1, 3, and 5 all the way.

Then loosen the caps on 2 and 4 a bit at a time.

[Vanagoner]

thanks Vince.  I am embarrassed, what are the torque values for putting them back down?

[cyrus #1]

It is 15 ft. lbs.  You will want to do basically the same procedure for the install.  Start with 2 and 4 and work everything down nice and evenly.  Also, be damn sure to make sure the cam caps go back on in the correct orientation.  Ask me how I know.  :oops:

[Vanagoner]

Oil pan full. No oil in filter (other than what I put in before I installed it.  Head sensor dry.  intermediate shaft turns fine.  I haven't put a drill on the pump yet.  nose of the bus is higher than the back, where it is parked.
 I think I skrwd the pooch when I was switching the oil pump stuff over.  The rebuild was out of a jetta.  I used the jetta pump body instead of switching to the vanagon pump body-  I just changed the pickup tube.  they might be at different angles, as I recall now (duh).  Can someone tell me if this is probably it before I pull the pan?  glad I didn't start it.

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

Sounds like oil pump is not actually moving. Even hand cranking can raise oil up to the head, so something major is wrong,.. :shock:

[autoholic]

I did something really dumb when I assembled my 1.6 TD, upside down HG! no oil psi to head!
Don't ask how it happened, I do not know how I missed that, still make me mad to think about that wasted time!

[saurkraut]

I haven't seen one, but appearently there are VW oil pumps that will bolt up, but the shaft is too short to engauge the counter shaft/vacuum pump.

Pull the vacume pump and look down the hole.

Maybe you have the wrong oil pump