new race car, no oil pressure

been working on a dart race car for over 3 years. finally get the motor in today, and have zero oil pressure when I tried to prime the it. I know, I know.....I feel like a total jackwagon for not thinking to check that while it was on the stand, but it is what it is.

heres what I do know. the pump is working, because the drill bogged down when it picked up oil. the oil filter is getting oil because it was slam full. from there, I dont see any. I had both valve covers off, to check the flow to the rockers while I was priming, and they are getting no oil.

this is a new 408 with high quality parts. It has a solid roller cam in it, so I had the engine builder install the copper tube kit from Mopar. I inspected it all after he was done, and it seemed correct to me. he had never done a sbm, he mainly does chevy stuff. the work looked good to me. he installed the tube on the passenger side, drilled all the oil holes back through the tube from the mains, and plugged the hole the feeds the drivers side galley. I did notice that he had forgot to put the plug in the block, in front of the distributor. I showed him, and he got it taken care of. so, I know its not that plug missing, that is causing the problem.

I checked behind the oil filter plate, and the correct hole is plugged there.


any of you guys got any ideas on what to check? I am pretty sharp on my mopar engines, but you know how it is, when you get pissed and cant think. thanks for the help guys.