So after 6 years of "as budget allows" rebuilding i fired the R100 into life on the weekend... pretty satisfying.... however... a little niggling light calling oil pressure didn't go off in the 30 secs i ran it for. So heres the question. When i used to play around with car motor rebuilds we used to pack the oil pump with Vaseline petroleum jelly to prime up the oil pressure... you guessed it, the R100 has a pump full of Vaseline and an owner anxiously debating wether to hit the key again and see if the pressure comes up, or pull the box for a clean and inpsection....
I've never heard of that before. I might have just greased it good with some assembly lube. But that sounds like your problem... Normally after an oil change or a rebuild, the thing to do is remove the spark plugs and crank the motor till the oil pressure light goes out. It seems like the pump would eject the vaseline, though. Perhaps if the oil were heated to 100C it might melt the vaseline? I'd try cranking it over with the plugs out - normally it can take a minute or so to get the pressure up, so perhaps it just needed to go longer.
Stick a heatgun under the tranny and aim in the direction of the pump. Set the temp lowish, it doesn't take that much heat to melt the vaseline. Then crank the engine with the plugs and valvecovers removed untill oilpressure builts up and oli appears at the rockers. Could take a while, so have a car battery at standby. Paul.
Wow, I have no idea how the vaseline will act in the lubrication system but when I think of all of the passages and bearing faces that it has to go past in order to finish the loop (thus getting out of the way of the flow of oil that's needed to allow the engine to run) all I can visualize are problems. Fortunately it probably hasn't gone past the filter, so pull that out and have a look. You might be able to clean out the system between the pump and the filter by flushing it through the oil pressure switch port. Unfortunately there was probably zero lubrication happening for the 30 seconds that the motor ran. What did you do to pre-lube the crank bearings and the cam? I absolutely would pull the plugs and not allow any compression to build until this is resolved.
In addition to what the other folks have said, I'd pull the valve covers and crank the engine over--sans plugs--until I verified oil flow at the rockers.
Ahh, an old engine reconditioning trick. Many years ago when I was in the trade, my old boss swore by this method. Particularly on Holden 253 and 308 V8's.... You don't mention what year your R100 is, but there are a few things I would check. Firstly the dreaded $2000 o-ring in the oil filter housing. Secondly that the oil pressure switch isn't faulty. Got a guage you can rig up? The vaseline won't have done any harm, but the airheads don't seem to have any problems with air-locks or priming even from initial start-up following a rebuild. The problem is elsewhere. :>)
Got me in one, 308 Holdens... i pulled the rocker covers off and the valves and rockers are dry .... no oil yet. I lubed up the cylinders before hitting the key but nothing else, time to start pushing oil wherever i can i guess.. will pressurising the oil sender with air hurt anything? Christ i piss myself off sometimes...
I would definitely do what other posters have suggested. Remove the rocker covers. Remove the spark plugs. (if you have electronic ignition, keep them plugged into the spark plug leads and resting against the engine block making electrical contact. Crank over the engine until the oil pressure light goes out. Continue cranking over the engine until you get oil at the top of all of the rockers. Once your oil light is out and you have oil at the rockers, you SHOULD be good to go. As a matter of fact, when I recently started my 1969 R60/2, I RAN it (in my garage) with no valve covers until I had oil at the rockers! Ever try to make oil pressure on a /2 with JUST the kicker?? PhacK
Just a note: lots of folks--probably not you--confuse the oil pressure and alternator lights on these bikes until they get used to them.
I have run both my /2 and /6 with valve covers off, just to satisfy my own doubts that the oil was getting to the right places.... but in the case of the /6, the oil light went out immediately, so no concerns.... I am thinking that the vaseline mighta been pushed into the oil filter and gummed it up (do these have a pressure-relief bypass I wonder?)... I would pull the oil filter and crank (with plugs removed as identified above) and check for oil there first thing, leaving the cover off for a visual inspection. Then on to a visual of the valve trains. Then let er rip....
Good point, Chris. It's not the first time someone paniced for nothing. The oil light is amber, the alternator light is red.
My understanding of the use of vaseling is that it is soluble in engine oil thus it won't plug anything up in its passage through the oil system. I can't see how it could cause any issues. If you have a mechanical gauge you can plug in in place of the sender temporarily you can ensure that you have oil pressure sans any speculation or fiddle fucking around. I only used the F-bomb because I know you folks in Australia love strong language.
Is Vaseling kind of like going Wasseling at Christmastime? Vaseline is a consumer parafin-based byproduct of oil production and it IS an old engine rebuilder's tool. It doesn't mean that it's the smart thing to use. Yes, it dissolves in modern engine oil, and yes, it is also a base ingredient in engine sludges. Sludge is good only when it is spelled f-u-d-g-e and you eat it as a confection. See state and county fairs and school or other religious fundraisers where fudge incessantly turns up. Like Brown calls it hook up a mech gauge if you can, but not until you have a lot of moving surfaces temporarily lubed and greased (with rebuilder's or reassembly grease made for the job-- that stuff doesn't sludge).
thanks to all the replies... esp the fbomb user, i used that alot today when i solved the problem and thought i would give some feedback. I stuffed around for a good while and removed the filter for some testing, dry and no oil.. so its not pumping out of the pump. I considered all the methods above and , reluctantly, in the end decided to pull the box and check. Begrudgingly i undid the use once stretch type clutch bolts, and overpriced flywheel bolts and arrived at the pump. Pulled the cover off and the Vaseline was a little off colour but relatively undisturbed... So i'll give you guys a hint as to what was going on... the key way was full of vaseline.... I can't work out wether to give myself an uppercut for the ommission, or a pat on the back for checking and avoiding an expensive mistake. Thanks for your help anyways....
Note to self; do not use vaseline for a key Good thing you dug in and found the key missing, saving an engine from self destructing for the price of a handfull of bolts is good economy Now for the next question; where the fok is that key :eek1 Paul.
Whew - that's too close for comfort! Well done taking the route you did - any other would have ended in a mess.
The same place as various circlips, split pins and other items made from unobtanium congregate........