ran the engine a while back with no belt, and had the screech. It went away with an engine rev. Now it's constant.

Thinking of selling the car as is, or swapping a Cooper S lump, and going to 10" wheels w/ S brakes now.  1981 clubbie..  Any interest in the car as is?

It's on the board under cars for sale NY. LIme green

I use a Sur-Flo bucket pump on new motors.

//shurflo.com/marine-products/general-purpose-pumps/shurflo-general-purpose-pumps/39-shurflo-oil-change-winterizing-system

Boat owners use them to suck oil out of dipstick tubes when they can't get to the pan drain plug.  The motor is reversible so you can put fresh oil in the bucket, and use the pump to push it in too.  I made up an adapter to replace the oil cooler hose going to the Mini oil filter.  Hook it up, pull the plugs, then pump oil into the engine oil galleys until I get good oil pressure on the dash gauge, then spin the starter until oil comes out of the oil cooler hose into another bucket.  Disconnect pump, connect oil cooler, start engine.

Without this, priming the Mini oil pump is the next best thing.  Make up a little paper funnel to dump oil into the block outlet, tape it to the block so it is more or less upright, pour in oil until it is halfway up the funnel, then turn the crank backwards until the oil is sucked in.  Hook up the oil pipe and start engine.

Run the motor without the belt totally - No Water Pump - No Alt  you shouldbe able to know VERY quickly if your noise is still there or not. Can run for a bit with no water circulation just dont let it get too hot to touch!

An oil change is always a good idea, but did you spin the alternator?  Mine was 'dry' and it was most audible whenever I turned the car off.

I've dropped the belt, swapped out the water pump, and still the noise persists. Gonna drain the oil and see what's on the plug.

Mike, I'm not sure what a spun bearing sounds like, but wouldn't there have been other symptoms beyond 'screeching'?  Wouldn't it have knocked or run extremely hot?

I don't know if it's relevant, but I had a bit of a screeching noise not too long ago and I was able to trace it to the alternator.  For fun, I dripped a few drops of oil between the alternator's fan/pulley and the body onto the alternator shaft and the screeching stopped. 

In any event, I hope it's not a bearing.

geez. That's no good, Mike.

CupCake, I have a LOT of Redline Assembly lube and I figured it would probably have the best chance of keeping the pump lubed for the initial start. It's meant for cams and cranks that have never been spun, so why not the oil pump?  I guess we'll find out.

apparently I'm too late. I'm pretty sure the screaching noise is a spun bearing.

I use Lubriplate engine rebuild grease but I suppose any light grease as you suggest will work. It seems to me if you turn the motor over for any reason during the rebuild the grease will pump out.

This will be really helpful on my engine build. Since I'll be building the engine from scratch, is there something else I can use while assembling to accomplish the same thing? A light bit of assembly lube?

yeah....what Jedd said above....but I roll it backwards in fourth for a bit, add a bit more oil to the funnel and do it again....then start'er up

I usually put small funnel in Banjo Hole above oil pump - FIll up funnel  - and go disspear for a few hours- that oil will drain down and into the pump.

Come back later - and Spin motor for pressure.

Goodluck 

It doesn't take much as you're just getting the pump wet enough to create the suction for it to pull the oil up..

thanks all.  It's coming back to me now. Been a while since Ive done this.

I've usually jacked the left front wheel off of the ground and with the gearbox in reverse gear, turned the left front tire clockwise as if backing up so that the engine completes 1 - 2 revolutions at the crank.  Give it a squirt of oil down the relieve valve or the banjo bolt occasionally as you do it.

how far should the car roll to refill the pump?

I take the banjo bolt from the oil line out and put oil in there (skinny funnel) while bumping the car backwards in 2nd gear with the plugs out....

Yup - I remove the spark plugs first and crank it over without spark plugs to get the oil pressure up before I start it. 

If it's been sitting really for a really long time, I squirt a very small amount of oil against 2 sides of each cylinder wall and let it sit for a few seconds for the oil to 'wet' the top rings.  I don't want any oil on the piston crown, so against the wall won't affect raising the CR too much.

anyone refresh me on priming the oil pump in a car that has been sitting?

Pump oil in pressure relief hole and roll car backwards in reverse?