Finally starting the process of starting and breaking in my rebuilt engine. Cranked it over today for the first time and there was no oil pressure. Checked the gauge and it was fine. We pretty much determined that the sender was at fault. It appears to be the original one from 1966. Ordered a new one and waiting to continue the process when it arrives.

However, my other concern is how much oil should I see in the heads under the cams? Looking through the oil fill port there is plenty of residual oil from filling the engine. I pulled the intake valve cover off to see if oil was getting up there and the lobes on the crankshaft had oil on them but nothing underneath the camshaft. Do I need to get the engine running to get more flow or is this amount normal?

We cranked it over about six times for about 20 - 30 seconds each time. We also pulled the sensor and kept a finger on its port while cranking the engine and there was plenty of pressure. We also put 60psi of compressed air into the oil pressure sender it moved the needle on the gauge to 20psi.

So, am I getting the right amount of oil to the heads at this point or will it increase once the engine is started?

 

I am at the same point with my rebuilt 3.8 engine. I bought my car in kit form so I have no idea if the oil pressure sender or gauge work so I connected a temporary mechanical gauge to the hole where the electrical pressure sender threads in. The pressure gauge kit was maybe $30 on eBay and came with a lot of fittings. Of course none of those fittings worked for the pressure sender hole. I think the thread is British Standard 1/2 inch straight pipe thread. Again, eBay to the rescue and I found an adapter to take the pipe thread to a standard (for the US, anyway) 1/4 NPT. I cranked maybe 30 seconds and had over 20 PSI showing. The stock electrical gauge is slow to respond due to the way it is designed to dampen quick changes.
I did not pull a cam cover but looking through the oil filler, there was a lot of oil pooling in there. It had been a day or so since I filled it so everything should have drained. I plan on leaving the mechanical gauge in place until I have at least tuned the carbs and it has come up to temperature.
I'm hoping you are just having an electrical gauge issue! From everything I have seen on this forum, they are not very reliable and the new senders can be troublesome.
Good luck!
Craig

PS..... I feel like sharing..... My car ran for the first time in many, many years. I set the carbs up per the manual and did a quick static timing job. It took about 2 seconds for the car to start and run on all cylinders. Scared the crap out of me because that was the last thing I was expecting to happen. I was imagining crank, fiddle, crank, fiddle, etc before getting it to run on at least half the cylinders. It was a really good feeling.

 

Good stuff in here:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/m...-gauge-282542/

 

Thanks! I did read the thread you listed above. My concern is the lack of oil pooling on the intake side of the head. Oil was getting to the cam lobes but there was no excess spilling out. Not sure if this is common and the amount of oil will build up after it is started and running or I have an issue with my oil feed lines. Head was rebuilt by a very reputable machine shop. I'm going to contact them and get their view.

Anybody else with experience with this please give a shout out.

BTW I put a few ounces of Marvel Mystery oil in each cylinder a few days before cranking it over since the engine has been sitting over a year since its rebuild. Wanted to make sure there was some lubrication in there before start up.