What do you guys think? I built this to fix a specific problem, but do you think it could help extend the life of any engine??

Pump sounded as though it was struggling means it was probably cavitating or failing to get/keep prime due to high suction lift. If you check amps, you might find a low amp condition where pump is not loading up - compare numbers to your test setup. If it's cavitating, amp load will drift all over the place. Locate the pump inlet as level to the suction hookup as possible [frame rail is as good as it gets on a car], or put a check valve on the pan connection and fill your hose prior to hookup. You did spot hose issues: a 1/4" [6mm] outlet line needs a 3/8" [10mm] suction. I would definitely put a check valve at supply line where it connects to engine to prevent backflow/oil starvation problems once engine is started, and lockout pump 12v source by relay contact whenever key goes to engine "on" position. All you want a prelube pump to do is fill your gallies/purge air and wet bearing surfaces prior to cranking. If you pop a valve cover, the setup should just barely push oil to the highest point whatever it is [cam bearings or pushrod, depending on engine]. Time how long it takes for that to happen [cold engine] from turning on pump, add 10-20 seconds and that's all you need for run time. Something between 10 to 15 Psi output is enough on most engines. If you want oil supply to continue while cranking, then install a tee in pump discharge and hook that up to an oil acccumulator - it will flow until system [internal engine pump] pressure exceeds resevoir pressure. An accumulator setup will definitely need that check valve at the pan connection. Done right, a prelube pump will add lots and lots of miles to your engine - good luck!

Oh I am absolutely going to try this at home. I watched the other video on the '02 yesterday and today discovered that you did this again and documented it. This is awesome and thank you!! It's just what I'm looking for. I have the '99 Explorer with the same SOHC. ~240k KM/150K miles. I have no chain rattle yet, somehow. I change with full synthetic often, but history assures us that eventually... my guides will break up. I'm hesitant to touch the tensioners for this same reason. Don't want to hurt those fragile nylon guides, especially after seeing the pieces in the pan on other teardown videos. YIKES! So, I'm going to try this instead of tensioners. Looks easier anyway, and more beneficial to my old (but good) 4.0. Cheers.

Thanks for the vid and the info - it gives us a place to start with our own engines...

I would put the check valve next to the filter, that line would only be pressurized when the pump is running, not the whole time the engine is running... These work well for turbos, with a timer on them, they are used for pre and post oiling. Running oil thru the turbo for 2-3 minutes after shutting the engine down stops the oil 'coking' on the turbo shaft/bearings.

No doubt about it will extend the life on the engine. Nice idea thank you for posting it. I might do that to my truck. I would hook it up a little different with less adapters if possible.

Your proof of concept is perfect.

Well done. Good explanation

👍 interesting. I can see where pressurizing the cam tensioners is good. I like this better than a pure accumulator, which is best for racing. 😎

Honestly, a very good job

Good idea since I heard that most wear is at start up. My brother has one on his 1960 F100.

Any thoughts of installing a magnetic pickup on oil sump connection?

Nice looking little pump. The gear design is very similar to the hi-flow/low-pressure oil pumps used on H-D engines.

Excellent idea. I came across this as i have an Accusump and a spare sandwich adapter and was wondering if i could just drill it out as you did. While the accu can pre-oil I didn't buy the fancy valve type so I may well do the whole mod too seeing as the car's just been rebuilt with forged pistons, new bearings etc

Great idea and clean install! I'd like to try this eventually, it will certainly be nice to always have oil pressure before startup. However, excluding specific design issues like yours and odd use cases such as infrequent use, I'm not entirely sure pre oiling will reduce startup wear nearly as much as we would like for several reasons. First of all, the oil won't directly reach all the engine's parts. It will definitely reach the cam, crank, and rod bearings, but not the splash lubricated parts like the valvetrain, cylinders, pistons, and rings. However, the oil will probably splash around slightly faster once the engine is started if it's pre oiled, so there's probably an indirect benefit there. Second, no matter how much oil or oil pressure there is, the engine's bearings and other lubricated parts must be in motion to have a hydrodynamic oil film separating them and will still be subject to metal to metal contact and wear until rotating fast enough to establish an oil film similar to how a water skier must be moving at a high enough speed to be floating on the water before their skis are no longer touching the ground and subject to wear. No amount of lubrication can change that. Finally, much of the wear engines experience when cold is actually corrosive rather than mechanical due to corrosive combustion byproducts such as acids and moisture condensing on surfaces before they are warm enough to prevent that. Also, much of the mechanical wear during startup/warmup is caused by cylinder wash, cold oil being too thick, and incorrect/uneven expansion of parts. For example, pistons heat up and and expand much faster than their cylinders, creating tighter than normal piston to cylinder wall clearances until the block warms up and expands too. So while pre oiling is good, it's only one part of startup/warmup wear prevention and preheating the oil and coolant is also beneficial. The closer you can get the engine to operating temp before startup, the healthier it will be in the long run.

I Googled Pre-Lubers and your video appeared. That’s a really great video thanks for posting. I do have a question but first let me explain. I currently have a commercially produced pre-luber system on my car ( a 1976 Aston Martin V8 Vantage ) that I purchased from acompany out of Wisconsin ( if memory serves me right ) called Engine Lube. I’d buy another coupla tamorra but they appear to have gone out of business? I installed the first system on the car circa 1995 /00 when I was restoring the car ( the first time round? ). When I installed the system I installed an extra boss in the sump of the engine and hard plumbed the lines ( ½ copper ) to the pump which is mounted on the engine ( there’s nowhere else to mount the pump in the engine comp there just isn’t any room ) on a plate I designed and built using vibration dampening donuts. I used braided SS from the pump to the filter sandwich plate. Subsequently Engine Lube came out with a much better looking smaller pump, very similar in shape and size to the one on your video, which I purchased and installed. The system has a brain wired into the ignition system. When the ignition key is switched to the auxiliary position the pump runs for 20 seconds and puts 20 psi into the main oil gallery. I bench tested the system on the engine when I was rebuilding the engine. I put an oil pressure gauge directly off the main gallery supply that goes to the OPG in the car and got a reading of 20 psi at about 5 seconds and oil pissed out of the overhead cam journals. When the engine is shut down the pump post lubes for 6 minutes preventing varnishing. It’s a really great setup especially for guys like me who own Vintage cars that sit all winter. Currently the pump is making rather a lot of noise and I think I need to replace it. I’d be really interested in getting the information on the other pump that you used in your other set up please. I’m not sure how to use this site in terms of making contact with you? Not sure about posting phone numbers or email addresses?? Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated thanks..dk

Hey how's the truck running? Any changes you made to the system? Did you end up using AN fittings or anything?

Definitely will help engine wear I replaced the valve springs on the 4.0 ranger and when cranking with the valve cover off it took for ever for the cam to get oiled... My engine in the cylinder head has a drain back plug thing that when the engine turns off the oil gets stuck in the head... I like your idea I might steal it would be very good for a turbo car

I wonder if i could stack 1 of them modified preoilers with my oil coler?

How are the trucks holding up? I'm trying to something similar on my audi. The chains are on the back just like the 4.0 sohc and are a real pain.

could place the check valve right before the oil filter?

*Will this work on my MF 35 Tractor?*

Could this be used to replace the stock oil pump??

Just watch the video. I was thinking increasing the wire size to the pump would be a big step forward are you getting your pressure quicker and higher. When you operate the pump you could feel the feed wire to see if the temperature is rising. No use wasting those amps through a feed wire.

Can we hear the engine start after the preoil pls ? or tell us if it still makes the rattle ?

Curious, the oil you are pulling from the pan, it gets pumped through the filter first and through the motor? I would think if it bypasses the filter that would be a problem

Hey Man, great mod! Do you happen to have a schematics of the setup? I think something similar might be a good mod to solve a similar start up rattle issue i have on a Honda accord 2.4( google VTC actuator rattle)

You didn't do a cold start of the engine after sitting using the preluber. Does it still rattle?

I do have a question... Great idea BTW.. Does it plug up your oil filter faster? Beings sludge settles on the bottom where your suction is?

I have a video on how I modded my tensioner’s plunger so that the chain slack cannot push it back in during startup or under load like popping the clutch.

How many miles on that truck now?

I’ve seen several videos like this but no one tells where to get this. So do you have a link for where to get this?

Have u try turn on the pump while idle?does it increase oil pressure too?

Excellent! Also use Rotella T or another oil with high ZDDP content, your flat-tappet cam will luv U long time

I have an explorer with cold start rattle....I hold the gas pedal to the floor and crank it till I get oil pressure...then start normally...gas pedal to the floor won't allow it 2 start

OP - did you ever add in a valve and lever to your oil drain plug hole connection? Then you don't have to disconnect things just turn the valve - that's the only minor flaw in your pre-oiler system, maybe you ought to make and sell your own?

You should be able to tap straight into the oil gallery on the engine most engines have a plug somewhere on the side of the block

Pretty slick! 👍

80% of engine wear occurs on startup. And computer engines love to SCREAM to life tearing things up inside. ALL cars should have pre-oilers from the factory!

Put your check valve on the other end of the line, eliminate the running pressure in the rubber line.

Wouldn't just T-ing into the oil pressure sending unit port be just effective at pre-oiling, with alot less chance at leaking? Back in the day, pop mechanics had a column called "ask Smoky " he had a pre oiler on a old ford Fiesta, and if I remember correctly, he ran that little commuter over a million miles.

Chuck the cruise control ?, are you nuts ? Gotta have the knee saver. Wow, you was going so good, until then.

Maybe try working any air out of the line in to order to speed up pressurization.

You got an 06? That's like a perfect one to get yourself a 5.0 donor Explorer, build a BEAST engine and drop it in, tune and shit and have a Ranger with a chop.

Good video and really like your thinking. My main concerns would be as follows: 1. If your check valve fails you loose all oil pressure from your stock pump. 2. Pick up from the bottom of the sump, grit etc in your engine. 3. No oil filter on the preoiler system. What are your thoughts on the following. Leave the sandwich plate unmodified and place your pump between the inlet and outlet. Now your oilprimer pump uses the stock pick up and the stock filter. I don't know if you can draw oil through the stock pump however. Second issue is the inline resistance on your stock pump caused by the new inline primer pump. To avoid this you would need a preoiler pump bypass pipe with a check valve. If the check valve fails you loose your preoiler but the stock pump will work fine. Only issue I see here is the pressure loss provided by a check valve. Any thoughts?

enterBJ40 If were you I would change the feeding hose diameter to a bigger size . Your pump is starving from oil due to lack of flow (volume) coming in. Make sure you have enough feeding (flow) volume and outing flow. The rule of thumb is 1 to 2 diameter difference between feeding line and outing line.

and what exactly keeps the oil from just pumping backwards through the engine oil pump back to the pickup tube? Just the natural resistance of the pump? It's definitely a good idea especially for new engines or those that sit for extended periods. Not only timing chains but it fills bearings right up before starting.

seems to me your bypassing the filter and pickup is at lowest possible sludge collection location i suggest a inline fuel filter on the 1/4 suction line

Next weekend project spotted.

All I can think of is that you would want a switch in the cab to turn off the fuel pump and you'd want to turn the engine over while the pump was priming the oil. Then you'd be good if the theory of the whole thing is correct.

I think the pump performance could improve a little bit more if you change pump location to a lower level, maybe same level as the oil pan drain bolt or lower...

Its great mod to extend engine life, all big industrial or marine engines have prime pump and preheating

your black iron elbow has a lot of restriction. look at the inside diamator of male end. when i did industrial hydraulics i never allowed to use a street EL

This is a great idea, and yes, I suspect it will significantly increase the life of an engine. A couple of observations: the restrictive hose wouldn't matter much because the goal is to get oil circulated through the engine. It might be a slower process with a larger initial pressure drop, but you'd still get the result you want. Also, an external gear pump is a poor choice, because they machine themselves and generate large amounts of debris. I'm a fluid power tech and spent a decade rebuilding hydraulic pumps and motors. I would never use an external gear pump for any reason. It's also important to know where in the circuit the sender unit is. Ideally, you don't need to monitor pressure at all, you would only need to confirm that oil is returning to the pan. Also, I'd be curious about how much the oil level changes after you've run the pump for 30 seconds. My concern would be that in a small engine, it may reduce the oil level enough to starve the engine oil pump. The volume of oil stored in a circuit can be deceptively large.

Maybe use a oil filter relocation adapter instead

The links in the information given are all old and dead. Could you possibly put the name model etc? Sorry to ask I just want to build one for my Toyota 3.0.

Links are all dead, except the drain plug adapter...

Links are old and don’t work

Why wouldn't you just add a disconnect to the fuel pump fuse? keep the circuit open for the first 5 seconds on a cold start... way easier and no chance of trapping air in a poorly chosen pump location.

I have that exact same pump that I was going to use for a tig torch cooling unit. I ran it for a long time pumping coolant and it always filled the system with very fine brass particles , almost like a fine powder. I wouldnt use it on a vehicle Its a shit unit.

interesting.

Commenters Why are you talking about picking up sludge from the oil pan ?? Dont you ever change your oil ??

Won't work - the oil cannot be sucked through oil pump.

Buy the 3.0.

AWE COME ON! You didn’t even stat the truck to see if it’s going to prevent a dry start rattle. Man I stuck for the whole video I fell let down.

You need a friend.

I'm doing this exact thing. But the pump will not pick up the oil. It's summer in Arizona and the oil is 10W30. Its like water. Maybe it's the 3/8 ID tubing and hose. Perhaps it's too big. This will be the third try. I'll move the pump closer to the oil pan. SeaFlo advertises a 1 meter suction. BS. I'm barely 14" above. Tired of lying ads. If that dont work I'll buy a damn submersible. What a pain in the ass.

Awesome idea but too many adapters, there must be another way to just make less connections

And uh .....thats all I have to say about that...........

this is not a problem or a solution. diesel engines last 2x the life of gas engines due to better wear and lower RPMs. also the cranking of an engine builds plenty of oil pressure before things happen. this is a waste of time and an area of failure that if it fails your engine dies. best not to put it on your car.

Does it work?