rebuilt my motor with new soft and hard seals. first start went good and started up after a bit of cranking but i noticed no oil pressure on the guage. turned the car off and checked my oil filter. completely dry. i have confirmed the regulator is installed, oil pickup o-ring, pump chain is installed, front cover gasket installed, i did not take apart the oil pump so i don't think the key fell out. not sure where to go from here i will try anything. any way to test for blocked oil passages to confirm thats not my issue?

 

First I would confirm that you plugged in the oil pressure switch on the driver side of the engine under the oil feed/filter on the engine. Just above the heater core coolant hose coming out of the driver side of the block.

 

it is plugged in. it is the sensor with just one wire\, right? wouldn't the oil filter still have oil in it if there was correct pressure?

 

swapped the regulator before the oil filter with a known good and no change. tying to identify number 9 so i can find out how to test it or maybe swap with another i have. grasping at straws here.

 

The long front key on the eshaft that turns the oil pump small pinion and OMP gear ?

 

No the oil filter is a high point above the engine. There is nothing stopping the oil from draining down and out the bearings once shutdown. Or atleast I never checked that quickly. I'm 90% sure it would drain out.

Also the oil pressure switch is the number 8 item in that picture

If you have AN lines you could always Tee off a gauge to see if there is pressure. I suppose there are also ways you could disable fuel/spark and crank the engine to see if oil even gets to the filter to begin with.

 

the long front key is in i know that because when i removed the oil pump to prime it i had to install the front cover again since it wasn't down on the counter weight enough causing it to stick out a bit keeping me from installing the large front bolt.

 

it is installed and plugged in

 

i do not have AN lines. initially when i noticed i had no oil pressure i checked the filter and it is still as it was when i took it out of the box. doesn't even have residual oil in it. i took out the fuel pump fuse and cranked the engine for 10 seconds a few times with the filter off and nothing came out.

 

If you say you didn't undo the oil pump keyway at all... clogged pickup or something till the pump. Or one of the pump rotors fell out entirely.

 

i can check the pickup again. i removed and re installed it to confirm the o ring was in and it was. sprayed some brake clean in the pickup and saw it come out the other side so i assumed it wasn't blocked. is there a better test? how can i test for blocked oil passage ways?

 

generally youd just replace the pickup tube with a rebuild since its like 35$ and has a filter in it that gets clogged over time (new ones come with the oring BTW). However even when new, if you use too much RTV it could get sucked into the pickup and clog the filter.

Trying to think if maybe you could take the pan off and somehow rotate the engine without the pan and just feed the pickup oil with a cup or something. Then see where the oil comes out of.

 

i would buy a new one but i have 2 and if i could confirm if one was clogged i can just swap it with the other if that tests good.

 

i will try your trick feeding the pickup with a cup and then spin the engine over by hand and come back with results.