Not All Oil Priming Tools Are Crated Equal

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Ronno6

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OOPS...That's Not CREATED Equal

The learning continues.
I purchased an oil priming tool.
Looks nice and nice bearing.
But....it does not work............

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The top flange which is supposed to keep oil in the lifter galley is too far up, allowing oil to escape from the galley. This prevents oil from building up pressure and making it to the rocker arms.

Should look like this:

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That one would work...
So, I spoke to the "manufacturer" of the one I purchased.
Scorpion Products out of North Carolina (NOT the rocker arm manufacturer in Florida)
"We sell 1000's of these and we have NEVER had a problem..."
Yeah, right.
It works for everyone else BUT me..............
Why does this keep happening to me..??
I'm starting to feel like John McLane.............
 

PrairieDrifter

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I just cut up an old distributor. Cut off the flat base of it right above the intake, then you have to cut all the junk connected to the main shaft off which leaves you enough space to chuck it up in a cordless drill.

It’s just a cut up regular old distributor that’s now a priming tool. And since it’s factory you won’t have the issues you’re having with this specific priming tool
 

PrairieDrifter

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If I remember right you need to take the main shaft before cutting up the housing that way you can leave some extra to grab onto when it’s mounted in the block. Just have to pop that cam gear off and it should pull out if I remember correctly. I can get a pic of the one I made
 

5akman

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Now i know what I'm going to do with that old TBI dist I have laying on the shelf in the garage! Great idea!
 

legopnuematic

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That's what I did, took a points distributor and took all of the stuff that wasn't a shaft and housing off. Did not need to cut the housing or anything.
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idahovette

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Exactly what I have. The only problem is I used an LS6 distributor to do it! Not my finest move!!
 

Blue Ox

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In the meantime, maybe you could stack some O-rings in the groove to take up the space and seal it?
 

PrairieDrifter

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That's what I did, took a points distributor and took all of the stuff that wasn't a shaft and housing off. Did not need to cut the housing or anything.
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I cut the base off mine to make it smaller and easier to work with/store, it also gives you more clearance for a drill.Kinda makes it less hackjob in my opinion lol but if it works it works lol
 

dhenderz

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Interesting. There was an article covering exactly this subject in the Mar2019 edition of Hot Rod magazine. Seems there are a number of these 'cheap' primers with this issue.
 

4WDKC

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I used an old TBI dist, I didnt cut it apart though, worked great.
 

PrairieDrifter

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The other good thing is you can pick up old junk distributors almost anywhere and it’ll work perfect every time, and sometimes for almost no money at all lol
 

bucket

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That's what I did, took a points distributor and took all of the stuff that wasn't a shaft and housing off. Did not need to cut the housing or anything.
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I did the same thing, except I ground the teeth off the drive gear instead of removing it completely. That way I know it engages the oil pump drive properly.
 

Ronno6

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Interesting. There was an article covering exactly this subject in the Mar2019 edition of Hot Rod magazine. Seems there are a number of these 'cheap' primers with this issue.

Did they mention the Scorpion unit??
 

PrairieDrifter

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This is the one I did. I just cut off the tooth section of the cam drive gear, cut it right above the roll pin so it will actually work lol. With a thin enough blade on a chopsaw or a hacksaw it works perfectly. This is also a good look on why I cut the base off, so there’s a lot of room to work with and it’s a smaller more effiecient “tool” lol

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