Ford 800 Oil Pressure

Just completed a rebuild of a 1957 ford 800 series 172 c.i.d. engine. Installed it on the tractor. I have heard tales of people doing a rebuild and starting the engine and running it while not checking the oil pressure. Then the engine locks up. I do not want this to happen...so I am taking my time.
Anyway, No fuel is going to the motor. I am just cranking the engine using the starter. Would this keep me from building up oil pressure? I don't crank too long but the oil pressure gauge does not even budge.
I had some old timers tell me that you have to 'prime' the oil pump before starting, after a rebuild. They could not tell me how to 'prime' the oil pump though.
Any suggestions?
Or should I go ahead and start the engine and keep an eye on the oil pressure and see if it builds?

Thanks

You might wanna also ask this question down on the FORD forum...if you have not already done so. SOUNDGUY, DEAN, and several others there should be happy to assist you.

Good luck...RICK

Some people pack the oil pump with a lite viscosity grease, we always took the distributor out (vehicle engines) used an old dist. drive and a drill to turn the pump to bring up oil pressure.Always a safe bet to get oil to the parts before any load is put on the engine.We also used to change the engine oil after about 15 minutes of running a rebuilt engine to get rid of any residual break in lube.Hope this helps.

A lot of hot rodders would put a shaft in the distributor hole and spin the oil pump with a drill to get oil the engine before they started it. You probably can't do that on your tractor. Some engines just will not build oil pressure with just the starter, some will. I have rebuilt lots of engines and never had a problem with just starting them up and making sure the oil pressure comes up within a few seconds. I'm sure that you probably used grease or an assembly lube on all the parts, right? That will lubricate everything till the oil pressure comes up. Don't idle the engine for the first hour of use. Bring the RPMs up to 1500 as soon as it starts. This will suck the oil up faster and wash out any dirt that was in the engine and run it thru the filter. The camshaft and pistons don't get enough oil when the engine is idling slow. That why trucks nowdays always increase the idle when they idle for more than a few minutes. The computer will even shut the engine off if you don't increase the idle speed. That might be a good habit for farmers to get into. Up the RPMs to at least 800 or 900 if you are going to be idling for any length of time. Good luck.

Good advice, you must have posted a couple of seconds before me. Great minds run in the same track! ha

Thanks guys....

your oil pump is driven by a hex shaft that is between the dist.a nd the pump.take the dist.out and using a socket on a drill,turn the pump.be sure to turn it the same direction as the rotor turns.

Thanks guys- just hooked a drill up and rotated about 15 seconds and pressure was up to 53 lbs..

Thanks again!