Before you do anything else, you should get the oil pressure regulator piston and spring and install it into your engine. The spring goes in first then the piston (spring goes inside hollow side of piston). Make sure you lube up the piston with motor oil before installing it so it can move freely in the bore. If you can squirt some oil inside of the piston bore before installing the spring and piston that would be a good idea as well.
After you reinstall the oil filter adapter, you're probably going to need to prime the oil pump. Here's what you'll need to do:
You'll need to get a hose nipple with the proper size pipe threads (should be 1/4 NPT) and install it in place of the oil pressure sender. You'll then need to get a clear (plastic) hose and attach it to this nipple and run it up to a funnel. Remove the oil filter and cut off a piece of plastic wire tie. What you need to do with this wire tie is push it in one of the smaller holes surrounding the large center hole of the filter. The oil filters sold for the 3800 have an anti-drainback valve (usually a rubber flap) inside that prevents oil from moving backwards thru the filter. For the purpose of priming the engine, you'll need to put something in the filter to allow oil to flow backwards thru it. Install the plastic wire tie far enough it won't get caught on the adapter housing when you install it but not too far so you can pull it out after you are done priming the engine (don't worry if the tie gets inside the filter and you can't get it out - the filter media will stop it from getting into the engine). Fill the oil filter with oil. Reinstall the filter (with the wire tie in it - holding the drainback valve open).
Fill your clear plastic tube up with oil and also fill the funnel about 1/2 way. Make sure the ignition key is OFF and pull all of the spark plugs out. Using a wrench or socket, rotate the crankshaft counter-clockwise, slowly. Watch the oil level in the funnel and tube. It should drop as you rotate the crank counter-clockwise. Keep rotating the crank and filling the tube/funnel with oil until you get about a pint or so of oil to go into the engine. Once you get to that amount, remove the funnel and tube and reinstall your oil pressure sending unit.
Unplug all the injectors and remove all of the spark plugs (if you haven't done so already). Make sure the oil level in the engine is full. Crank the engine over with the starter (no longer than 15 seconds at a time, so you don't overheat the starter) until you get oil pressure indicated on the gauge. As soon as you get oil pressure - stop. Remove the oil filter and pull out the plastic wire tie you previously installed. Refill the filter with oil if it isn't still full, and reinstall the filter. Crank the engine over again with the starter and verify you still have oil pressure. If so, stop. Check the oil level and make sure it is full. If so, reinstall your spark plugs and plug your injectors back in. At this point you should be ready to run the engine.
Since this is a fresh rebuild, I suggest you change the oil and filter at the following increments:
-After the first warm-up cycle.
-Then again after the first 100 miles or 2 hours of engine operation.
-Then again after the next 500 miles. (Then after this you can change it every 2500-3000 miles).
To some people this might sound excessive, but it is best to get all of the pre-lube and break-in debris out of the engine as soon as possible.
I suggest using nothing but quality conventional motor oil for the first 10,000 miles. Use of synthetics too early can result in the engine not getting properly broken-in.
-ryan
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OVERKILL IS UNDERRATED
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