Ken,

I had something like this happen when I was first trying to get Fifty
Shades of Brown going a year ago. The guy I got the car from had let his
dad work on it, He had a brand new head but everything was just lying in
the car so I hooked it up and no oil pressure. I tried everything, finally
concluded that there was nothing to conclude and didn't like what had been
done anyway so I started over on a rebuild with new pump, all new machine
work, rings, bearings, etc. I have not had time to get the new engine
started. But now, reading your post about the vacuum pumps, I wonder about
that. I have rebuilt more than a few of these diesels and never had to
prime one for oil pickup, not one. I looked at the oil pump when it came
out and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I tossed it. I wish I had
saved it for a post mortem. In my case it had to be the oil pump because I
am using the same vacuum pump that came out of it in the first place.

Keep us posted on this.

Jim

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 7:53 AM, Ralph Meyermann <ralphmeyermann@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hopefully still warranty the engine too!! Good luck
> On May 12, 2015 7:50 AM, "kenneth wilford (Van-Again)" <
> kenwilfy@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
> > I didn't let it run very long.  30 seconds max.  This was after oiling
> the
> > motor with an air gun on the oil pump shaft.
> >
> > After ripping everything apart and putting it back together yesterday I
> got
> > a call from the engine builder.  We had spoken to them earlier that my
> > Father and I thought that there seemed to be something wrong with the
> > length of the oil pump shaft or something related to it.  It seemed to us
> > that the oil pump was not being driven by the vacuum pump.  There was
> some
> > small damage around the slot in the bottom of the vacuum pump where it
> > drives the oil pump.  The builder dismissed this as crazy talk as he was
> > looking at engines in their shop and couldn't find a problem...  Until
> > yesterday afternoon when they figured out that there was a problem with
> > some of the vacuum pumps they had on hand.  Supposedly the bottom of the
> > pump housing where is seats to the block is incompletely machined not
> > allowing the vacuum pump to seat all the way down!  They are going to
> > machine the pumps they have on hand but I am going to try to mod the
> pump I
> > have here just to get this project finished.  I just wished they had
> found
> > this problem before I spent an entire day trying in vain to figure this
> > out.
> >
> > Hopefully I can grind a little off of the pump and get this van driving.
> > Wish me luck.
> >
> > Ken
> > On May 11, 2015 8:19 PM, "Walking Boss" <walkingboss@communicomm.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > The diesels drive off the back side of the Gilmer belt, and the
> > > countershaft
> > > turns opposite to the gas engine. I would check the crank bearings, and
> > cam
> > > journals  after  all this running with no oil pressure!
> > >
> > > Skipper
> > >
> > >  Do the gassers and diesels spin the intermediate shafts and or oil
> pumps
> > >>
> > > opposite directions?
> > >
> >
>