Got that pre-lubin' feeling (fwd)

[David Erickson <davide@Rational.COM>]

Dan Bocek writes:
> Those of you who kindly responded to my engine pre-lube question, thank 
> you for the many and varried ideas.  In the end, what ended up working 
> was dropping the sub-frame, removing the pan, attaching a long hose 
> directly to the oil pump inlet, raising the other end of the hose higher 
> than the feed line, dumping in tons of oil, and spinning the engine (via 
> starter motor) until oil was flying from every exposed orifice.  A handy 
> wine bottle cork was the perfect size to temporarily prevent oil from 
> draining back out of the pickup after the hose got yanked and the pan was 
> being prepped for re-installation.  Just to be anal, before I put the pan 
> back on, I filled it with 4.5 quarts of oil so the pickup would be under 
> oil at all times (don't think this step was really necessary, but you 
> know....  Lesson learned:  The best way to an Audi oil pump's heart is 
> through it's main artery.  This sounds like a lot of work, but it's 
> reallynot all that bad - about 2 1/2 hours.  If I had done this in the 
> first place, it would have saved days of frustration.
> 
> Things that didn't work:
> 
> 1) Over-filling the pan by 1.5 quarts (didn't really wanna go much higher 
>    than that.
> 
> 2) Jacking rear end of car up and letting sit overnight.
> 
> 3) Trying to back-fill the oil passages by pouring oil into the pressure 
>    sender hole and/or the turbo oil feed line.
> 
> 4) Any and all combinations of the above that you can think of (believe 
>    me, I tried them all!) but your mileage may varry.
> 
> Note: all priming attempts took place with both oil filters pre-filled and
> with a fully charged battery. 

Wow, what a lot of work... but there is an easier way, which only
occurred to me after reading this.  The easier way is to make an
external oil pump, and pump the oil in through the oil pressure sensor
hole.  You can make an external oil pump with about $20 worth of
parts and an electric drill to drive it.  The parts are easy to find:
a VW air-cooled engine oil pump, gasket and cover, along with some
assorted pipe fittings and hoses.

Those VW oil pumps are useful for lots of purposes besides pumping
oil in bug engines.  A local company that started small and has an
international business now, owes a lot of their success to VW oil pumps.
The company, LTI, which makes hot melt glue applicators for the
packaging trade (cardboard boxes, mostly), was having all kinds of
problems finding pumps that would last in this application.  Then
one of their salesmen, who used to be a service advisor at Wester
Porsche-Audi (since bought out by the local BMW dealer, who thinks
Audis are competition for BMW sales, so doesn't even have any new
Audis in his showroom, and charges 25% premium on Audi parts, but
I diverge from my story), thought of using the VW pumps, and in so
doing, eliminated an expensive maintenance problem by providing an
essentially disposable pump that actually performed much better in
service.

-Dave Erickson

'93 90S
'84 Coupe GT
'64 356 C coupe