I thought I would ask for advice/cry on everyone's shoulder.  I have been
working really hard the last two weeks installing a 1.9l TD conversion into
a customer's Vanagon.  Today was going to be the happy day of firing it up
and doing the break in.  Instead, I am sad because so far, I have no luck
getting the brand new engine to make any oil pressure whatsoever :-(

Here is the story.  Brand new engine, filled with 15-40 oil.  Cranked the
engine for at least 5 minutes while we were getting the fuel system filled
up and bled.  The oil light was on the whole time, but because it is a
conversion I thought maybe it wasn't working properly.  We finally got the
engine to start and it ran sweet, sounded great and I was happy that all my
hard work was over.  All of the lights on the dash went out except for the
oil pressure.  I thought maybe it was an electrical glitch so I shut the
engine down after about 30 seconds of running and checked the wiring.
Seemed fine.  I installed a pressure gauge in the port in the head.
Started the van up again, ran for another 30 seconds or so and no oil
pressure at all.  Shut it down.  Check the vacuum pump and it seemed fine.
Pulled it out looked at the oil pump shaft.  Hooked up a rubber hose to the
pump shaft with an air tool to allow us to turn the pump itself at decent
speed.  Turned the pump clockwise for at least a minute, still no pressure
at the head.  Reinstalled the vacuum pump, making sure that it seated all
the way down (it drives the oil pump) and  cranked the engine over several
times.  Still nothing.  Cracked the oil filter, it was full of oil so that
just cracking it, it ran out.  I didn't put any oil in it because it was on
a decent angle and I figured it would just mostly spill out anyway.  So
something pumped oil into the filter, but I am not seeing any pressure at
the head port.

At this point, I spoke with the engine builder.  They said maybe I just
haven't let it run long enough period of time to get the air to bleed out
of the system and that I should run it for another minute to be sure it
isn't still just trapped air.  My experience is that these motors make
great oil pressure, usually it is pretty quickly made (just a few
seconds).  I am going to try the longer run and see if anything good
happens but I am not hopeful.  If anyone has any thoughts or advice, please
let me know.

--
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com