ahickman

Just dropped in a 22RE that I rebuilt from the ground up. Crankshaft was ground and all new bearings, etc. New oil pump from Napa. Started up on first few cranks and purred like a kitten. Low oil pressure light comes on shortly after. Swapped out the oil pressure sensor for a pressure guage and only get about 12 Psi. Thought it might be an issue with the oil pump not having been primed so I poured a bit of 10w40 down the check valve and tried it again. Still no pressure. Any suggestions on what to do next?

Pistonman

Do you have 12 psi or no oil pressure? If you have no pressure you may have left out an allen plug in the block or crank. If you have 12 psi you may have too large an oil clearance, or need to shim the relief. Toyota says what, I think 4.3 psi at idle is ok.

rowdy235

at what rpms do you get the 12 psi reading? Honestly I think if thats at idle (or close to it), your switch is bad.

ahickman

After about 5 seconds, I see the needle on the guage bump up to 10-12 psi. When I rev the engine (~2000 RPM), I don't see any movement in the needle. I had the crank ground and they supplied the bearings. Did not even bother to plastiguage them. Once I had the crank bolted down, I tried to spin the crank. Did not spin freely. Not sure what you mean by "shim the relief". Can you explain?

Pistonman

I just built 2 22R engines. The crank should spin smooth as glass when installed. You should always plastigage- trust not. The spring under the plug on the oil pump is the relief, try another washer between the plug and spring. It may not be a good idea though, sounds like you may have a mechanical problem.

dcg9381

Typical causes:
1) Not packing the oil pump. (as you've got some pressure, this isn't your issue)
2) Forgetting to install all of the galley plugs... As you've got 12psi, I think this is likely.