If a distributor housing isn't installed, the lifter oil gallery down one side won't receive any pressure. No oil to the rocker arms on that cylinder bank is the result. I use a junk distributor with the teeth ground off the gear as a priming tool to prevent that problem.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!