[VeTTeMaNC486]

Long story short - I had an intake gasket leak and had real thick gaskets stacked under it, a halfass fix that didnt help. Had the intake welded and machined. Little did i know, my distributor didnt go all the way back down and catch the distributor drive. :lookinup: so i crank up the engine and after 1-2 mins of idling i decide to check the oil pressure (I should have been looking at it when i started it... i know...) and the gauge read zero. i freaked out and turned it off. I pulled the power to the distributor and cranked the motor over with the valve covers off, no oil coming out of the push rods. bad news. I guess im going to spend my next few weeks rebuilding my freshly rebuilt 383. Time for four bolt main caps, F/I grind cam and maybe lower comp pistons because I have a turbo kit im eyeing. Ive also thought about solving my oil pressure problem and seeing if there are any noises inside the motor when i crank it again and just leaving it as is. What would yall advise?

 

[grumpyvette]

Id pull the pan and inspect the bearings carefully BEFORE running it again but in two minutes you MIGHT be ok due to splash oiling of the lower assembly

 

[VeTTeMaNC486]

Id pull the pan and inspect the bearings carefully BEFORE running it again but in two minutes you MIGHT be ok due to splash oiling of the lower assembly

how hard is it to pull the pan with the motor in car? I have a big 7 quart pan... quite a bit bulkier than the stock pan.

 

[grumpyvette]

on most C4 corvettes its no big deal to do....
Ive done it with my 10 qt custom pan numerious times (1985) and on both my other stock oil pan corvettes (1992 and 1996)
you remove the oil filter and the two diagonal braces, the starter and in some cases the headers need to be removed but in most cases they don,t need to be touched. the coolant line under the oil pans removed too the oil cooler, then the pans dropped (the only trick is that the crank must be slowly turned by hand as in only one location will the front pan slide off between the K frame and counter weights on the crank)
you don,t need to pull the motor mounts or jack the engine up to clear the p[an on any of my vettes

 

[glasrtlr]

can't really say if you hurt the bearings, 2 minutes at high idle is a bunch of revolutions...would highly recommend inspecting the bearings, polish the crank with 400 grit and replace the bearings if ANY doubt...cheap piece of mind, retain resale value of this engine while you build the ''big honker''...rod bearings for cyl 1 & 2 are usually first to suffer under oil starvation --look there first .
i always ''crank for oil pressure'' and SEE it on the gauge BEFORE powering up ignition on a new street engine ''first'' start and on EVERY start with big $ race engines...that ''immediate start'' you see hyped on current TV adverts is NOT the best thing for your engine, just a marketing tool aimed at the legions of un-informed

 

[VeTTeMaNC486]

the thing is, it wasnt the 1st start of the engine... i have been driving it around for a while. then i took the intake and stuff off and repowder coated it and had machine work done on it. I had no idea that it wouldnt have oil pressure when i cranked it again, and yes i am stupid for not checking it though :nuts:
I think im just gonna pull it and put 4 bolt main caps on it because I really want that extra strength when I turbocharge it...