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Well....After many years of restoration on my 37 120, I'm ready for my initial first start up. I had the engine rebuilt a few years back at a local auto machine shop which the owner has since retired and the shop is closed. I have always squirted some marvel mystery oil in the cylinders and turned it over occasionally by hand. I can remember years back an old timer told me they would remove the distributor, make a shaft to engage in the oil pump and turn the rebuilt engine over with a BIG drill to build up oil pressure before trying to start the engine, which I now question? Maybe he could have been talking about Chevy, Ford or Mopar engines?? Looking for any advice or suggestions on a rebuilt engine prestart in regards to oil pressure.

The oil pump in your 120 is driven directly by a gear on the camshaft so cannot be turned by using a drill.
If you want to build up oil pressure before starting just remove the spark plugs and turn the engine over with the stater.

I would definitely spin the engine over on the starter with the plugs removed. If you have oiled the cylinders previously it is a must because too much oil might cause excessive head pressures. Spinning the engine over on the starter may purge any excess oil out the plug hole. It will surely smoke up the garage on start up so be aware of that too. Good luck.

Be sure to lay an old but clean towel over the top to catch the excess oil and even so it will make a mess but can't be helped as it needs to come out before you crank it with the plugs in place.

When the engine starts make sure the valve lifters are spinning.Leave the side covers off ,so you can see them.If they don’t spin ,it will kill your cam. I recently started another straight 8.Most of the lifters turned ,bu some were slow .I helped by using a screwdriver to help.Eventually all spin .After you run it for a time ,you can adjust the valves

I would circulate oil using a hand pump and add Marvel Mystery oil to fuel and crankcase - it is a good top end lubricant for valves.

On my '32 (which has a provision to be hand cranked) I squirted a little oil into the cylinders and turned it over ever once in a while. When it came time to start the car I used an 1/2" electric drill with socket to slowly "hand crank it" with the plugs removed until I got a nice oil pressure.

The one draw back I encountered with the putting oil in the cylinders was after about about 25 miles some of the exhaust valves began to stick. The sticking was caused by carbon build up on the valve stems, which I attributed to using too much oil.

Thanks for all your advice, seems to be running well, oil pressure is about 45#'s, temp. is holding at 180, and system is charging. Not quite sure what the rpm should be set at? None of the manuals I have seem to have it listed at idle? Had a lot of smoke on first startup but it has cleared up, wife thought the garage was on fire.

Congrats on the startup!

For idle speed, you want it to idle as low as possible, after it is warmed up. For perspective, I can't hear my car at a stoplight if it is just idling once it is warmed up. Somewhere in the 400-450 RPM range. There are two factors - mixture, and speed. What has worked well for me in the past is:

1. Warm up engine to normal temp.
2. Adjust idle speed to reasonably low.
3. Hook up vacuum gauge and lower each mixture screw to achieve highest vacuum without the engine stumbling (i.e. leanest possible mixture). Then richen the mixture screw by a quarter turn. Repeat for each venturi.
4. Re-adjust idle speed to lowest possible without stumbling.