Dry Start A Good Idea?

[roaniecowpony]

Better than me, I'd turn the engine by hand until I got oil pressure on engines I built.

Two items of concern require oil pressure to function - the chain tensioner and lifters. Pentastar chain tensioner seems ok but the hydraulic lifters... every cold start I could hear them clatter until they pumped up. I'm not sure of the failure mode for the followers but it could be they are not happy with excessive clearance because it seems the needles escape eventually. I installed the baxter adapter in mine.

My brother made a distributor to connect the oil pump and a drill.

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[Yawnie'sPapa]

We just ran the oil pump with a drill on fresh v8s.

I use a speed handle.......... that way I can feel if there's anything wrong, get a sense for extra drag, etc. I don't believe in the drill method. I've seen others put engines together with way too much drag in the oil pump and rip it up once the engine ran because the drill could easily spin a problem through.
I've never had a failure on an engine I've built but watch others complain of ripped up drive gears and so on.

I wonder how many remember the speed handle..

For many years, tractors and cars used cartridge filters with no anti-drainback of any sort, and no troubles.
We've had a number of Pentastar engines, and no failures to date (I add the last part because stuff can fail just because - doesn't mean there's an oiling issue)

People used to claim the AMC gen II V8 needed an oil line in the valley to feed the rear main bearings and swore it resolved their issues. And yet, a friend who is a pro engine builder proved on a dyno that the oil pressure was the same on each end of the block - and the failures were likely more related to human error.
No one can prove that any mods fix anything just because "i added this and it didn't fail". Well, millions of engines run without and don't fail - so that's also proof of something.
When someone is selling something - there's a personal believe, a personal stake and a financial stake and incentive. Of course you are going to be told certain things are necessary - if they say it's just nice to have, it's saying they are wrong and they'll never do that.

Odd, or interesting, that I've never run any fancy additives or any added equipment and still, over 5 decades, have never lost an engine and have never had a customer bring one back with premature failure.

But do whatever makes you feel good, I guess. It's your dime and time.

 

[Yawnie'sPapa]

I have to laugh when I see posts with the Pentastar carnage - because there's nothing saying what the cause really was. In the one I'd bet it was human error, or rather a screw-up. It's not proof of anything at all - not proof of lack of oil, not proof of wrong oil, just proof that things can blow up.
The one in particular - it's been dug into before - someone worked on it in the past - for all we know they forgot to properly torque a rod or a main cap, we don't know, never will. It could have been over-revved, run hot, run with old oil or wrong oil, will never know.
It's proof or evidence of nothing at all.

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