normal with priming an engine..?

[duncanthrax]

I thought I asked this before, but I've been away a while and couldn't find it with a search. Anyway, here goes...

While priming my engine (383) with a reversible drill and MP drill bit, I noticed that, with valve covers off, oil will go shooting up so high, it gets all over the underwide of the hood and all over the engine compartment, etc. It does this on both sides (once I turn the crank by hand and get it over to the other side).

I had another mopar which I watched run with the valve covers off for several minutes and there wasn't any oil shooting out like this.

I presume once the engine does fire up, the oil WILL shoot out like this which doesn't seem right. I mean of course I will have the valve covers on, but that's besides the point..?

Thanks again for your help on this.

[Dr. Righteous]

I have to assume that you don't have the rocker shafts bolted up. the oil feeds are in the rocker shaft mounts. The shaft fills up and feeds oil to the rockers, pushrods,springs, ect. \
Remember depending on your crank position you may or may not get oil to both sides. Turn the crank a bit and you should see oil start to flow.
You should see SOME oil pressure when you are manually priming with a drill. At least 5 PSI or so, but without the shafts on you probably won't seem much of anything.

[Glen440]

I've seen that before when I primed an engine. It was just a short block and did that through the oil hole for the head. The other thing is when the engine is running the oil cannot shoot so far cause its a short burst at a time. The rockers should spray some oil when its running.

[dewme5]

what sort of drill are you using? just a normal 3/8" cheapie that gets a little bogged down under the pressure, or a big honking 1/2" industrial that is capable of putting out that sort of pressure? also. what viscosity oil? some 0w5 will probably shoot out pretty easy too!

[duncanthrax]

I'm just using a 3/8" reversible drill. The oil comes out of the normal place (i.e. rocker-shaft oil holes or whatever they're called). I have to turn the crank to see the same phenomenon (i.e. oil squirting out high enough to hit the underside of the hood) on both sides of the engine, but it seems consistent with both sides (oil squirts out far and high).

I was suspecting that the previous owner put the oil-feed shaft thingie (I don't have the owner's manual with me) in wrong. From what I remember reading in the owner's manual, it's supposed to be aimed down and toward the inside. There's a diagram in the manual.

Could this be the problem? Or is it just because my drill spins so fast?