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I need some advise. I have a rebuilt 350 that was rebuilt about ten years ago. It was sitting in my brothers shop waiting to be installed in his 1939 truck but never got there. I am conserned about the bearing being dry at startup.do I need to tear into the bottom end and relube. I talked with the motor builder and he said it was assembled with motor oil only on the bearings

Seems to be a run on old rebuilds sittin around. It's been too long since I worked on a 350 but I would be looking for an external spot in the oil passages to plumb in and prelube the engine. If the engine is in a vehicle you could tow it around until oil pressure was up before you run it. Prelube is better.

Just thought of something else...fill the oil pan way up with oil and leave it sit for a bit and turn the engine over by hand once in a while. That ought to get some oil on those bearings. Remember to drain to proper level before running. Just an idea as I would prefer not to open it up again.

Cant you prime the oil pump like you can with a straight 6???

This is a two man job. Take out the distributor and get an electric drill with something that will engage the oil pump. Turn the oil pump with the drill and at the same time have your assistant get on the crankshaft with a socket and wrench and slowly turn the engine over for several revolutions. After this, you should be able to start it without fear of lack of lubrication.

You can get an oil pump primer tool from Auto Zone. I made one out of an old distributor. Spin it up with a drill motor and check your oil pressure on the gauge. It would also be a good idea remove the plugs and pump a couple of squirts of light oil or ATF in each cylinder before you crank it over.
Fred

yes finding a rebuilt sitting around in this economy seems to be the way to go right now lol. thanks for all the great info. I think I will try spinning up the oil pump while turning the crank. that should get oil to the journals.

Easier just to prime it with the distributor removed, spin the oil pump shaft,then just put a few squirts in the cylinders.
Filling it up to the top of the crankcase is going to waste a lot of oil,and still not lubricate the top end.
I once bought a truck from a guy who hydrolocked it by filling it with oil, not pretty.

You only need to turn it four complete turns stopping at each 90 degrees while the lifters fill with oil. After four turns of the crank, every lifter and bearing will have the proper oil. Don't bother priming till you are ready to start it, its just going to drain back out if you wait to long.

When you are ready to start it, have a charged battery ready, coolant filled and burbed, exhaust on, and fire extinguisher handy.

Joe

Mustache man, it's a huge leap of faith to simply fire up an engine somebody else "rebuilt".

If it were mine, I would invest a day and a gasket set and check all the bearing clearances with plastigage, put assembly lube on all the lower end bearings and on the camshaft, lifters and timing set, check the ring end gaps and correct positioning of the ring gaps on the pistons, verify correct camshaft indexing and set the lifter preload.

This is really not a complete list of things to do like verifying correct rocker arm-valve stem contact pattern to confirm correct pushrod length and degreeing the camshaft.

Use of a "true roller" timing set, if it doesn't already have one, will give you long term accurate valve timing that will show up when you check the ignition timing periodically and find that it hasn't become retarded due to a junk timing set wearing out quickly. A true roller timing set costs about $75, which seems like a very small price to pay for not having to replace a worn out junk $20 timing set with the engine in the car.

Reassembling it yourself will allow you to verify correct torque on all the fastners.

Don't forget to use a camshaft break in additive, get the engine ready to fire immediately before the break in lube is wiped off the camshaft and lifters by excessive cranking and run the engine at RPMs of about 2000 for the first 20 minutes or so.

Or, you can just fire it up and see what smokes.

yar thankyou for all the info.I know the builder it is my father inlaw who worked for a gm garage for thirty years. The last ten he worked on the heavy end of the shop rebuilding engines.

Oops, I thought it was a "rebuilt" engine from an unknown source. Sorry.

I'm an amateur at this so your father in law has probably forgotten more than I will ever know.

Good luck with your project!