Accepted Answer

Bill-I was just thinking of a couple other things. There is a presure relife valve just around the oil filter, but this is almost assurdly not the problem since the presure comes up after a bit.

You could change the oil level to the bottom of the distick and time how long it takes to build oil prsure, then fill the oil to the top of the full line and do the test again. If you have a significant change in the amount of time it takes to build presure then we can say the pump is the issue.

I'm pretty sure the HM (this is a very old engine) had compression releases. If your not using the engine much and just kind of want to get by for a while you could pull the releases and run the engine under starter to build oil presure before you start each time. You might get a couple more years before you have to change the oil pump.

There should be a check valve at the filter. I don't have an HM manual here, and I just tried a TN manual and they all have a check valve in the filter housing. This could possible be an issue if the oil drained out of the filter and had to be re-filled each time the enigne starts.

Thanks for asking
Scott

Expert:	Yachtwork
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:
Answered:	10/21/2009

Marine Engineer

MEC3 and RYA Yachtmaster Ocean