brought this up before remember Mike and on the Melling video about oil pumps - you have to make sure the oil pump is going to prime, so you need to self prime it with motor oil before installing it and this self primes it as well. Also what speed / rpm is your drill running at while priming ? Might need a more powerful drill. Also while priming sometimes I have seen to rotate the crank by hand / socket both at the sametime can start the oil priming process a lot easier and faster.

next if and when you get the oil to start priming - take your valve covers off and make sure you see oil rolling off every one of your valve train components. Just because you see pressure on the oil gauge does not mean that oil has made its way thru all the oil passages completely. You want both - to visually see it and have X amount of pressure on the gauge.

I agree you should get a little oil in the pump before install...But still spinning the pump with a drill with a proper drive/cut up old distributer,,,the oil system should prime ..Right?

I dunno motor, gear pumps do not like drawing head.

if the pump gears&housing is dry i don,t think the pump will suck oil and don,t turn it forever without oil in it or the pump could be damaged.

I'm not sure what I'm running my drill at, so my best bet is going to be overfill the pan?

I've always used a high speed drill first to get it started and switch to a big low speed once it's primed. never had any issues.

hopefully that does it,if not let us know.in fact let us know either way.

So do we think there is anyway of priming the pump WITHOUT pulling the motor back out?!

do as i explained with the engine in the boat.fill it until the pump is submerged in the oil,then prime the pump. after the pump primes drain the excess oil then continue with the priming tool for 5 minutes.stop and rotate crankshaft 90 deg at 1 minute intervals.

fill the line that feeds the outside of the filter w/ oil,,then spin your drill ccw.hopefully this will pull the oil into the pump.then try priming.