Do you have an oil pump primer? To take the cam/distributor/oil pump connection out of the equation, I'd be very tempted to yank the distributor and see if driving the oil pump with a drill makes any difference to your flow. Just wondering if maybe some teeth got chewed, if for some reason you have an incompatible hardness distributor gear. Are you running a roller cam, or flat tappet? Depending on which, determines what type of distributor gear you use, or you can wind up eating some teeth.

 

What about the galley plugs? did you verify the plugs under the timing chain? These also have internal oil restrictors.. Its either that or cam bearing are in wrong, I doubt its your crank

 

if they were the press in type and he was running a high volume pump initally one could have popped out. Id still check the bottem end with all that running with no/low oil pressure. he could just drop the pan and inspect/plasti guage in the car. peace of mind is priceless

 

Did he miss one? He seems to have known what to watch for.

 

At this point I think it would be a good idea to try to use a primer again and see what he can get. But it would just be so he was sure why he did not have oil pressure. I think the ship has sailed on this rebuild ever making to the road. Even if he fixes the pressure issue he need to pull the motor back a part to see the extent of the damage caused by running it without oil pressure.

I have never been a fan of plastic gage as a way to be sure a engine is right. Its my backup check that I did all my measurment right. I dont like the way it works but I have never put a motor together without using it. I have seen too many machine shop mistake and I do not think I am any better then a machine shop. Parts get miss labled, you just pick up the wrong part, something crap happens during a machining operation. If I had to guess I would say miss lables parts is the most common issue. A set of bearing marked .010 undersize is really "on size", Pastic gage is good enough to pick up on a .010 error

 

my point exactly!!! engine building is meticulis work double check the machine shop, yourself and ALL clearences/tolerence are in spec or its all for not!

 

Did you check the oil pump driveshaft? could have snapped.

 

Check the front oil galley plugs. Drop the pan enough to watch by the front main cap and prime the motor. IF you have a overly large amount of oil flowing down the cap you might have a plug that came out or is about to.

 

Remember the oil starts thin while cold and gets thicker as it warms so as it gets thicker it stops registering on the gauge

 

I would check the plug under the rear main cap. If its the older 2 piece seal motor the pulg is 1/2 inch and if the new one piece seal motors the plug is smaller. I found out the hard way when priming a motor thats what I had done. I had installed the smaller plug in the older bock and should have been using the 1/2 in plug. Some thing to look at first. I alway prime all the motors that I build just to be sure.