i know this sounds like a silly question, but many of you might have sen my old thread. i seemed to have a small crack in the block, and am repairing it tommarow, i was on vacation and my father told me he had fixed it, but i know he hasnt filled it with oil or done anything else with it yet. now i remeber when all the oil leaked out, i went to turn the car over and it wouldnt turn over, i was guessing that the cars electronics could tell that there was no oil pressure, and wouldnt let the engine start, but im just making sure this is the case, because if not then i know i have a serious problem on my hands......thanks alot for the help everyone, you have helped make my life 100X easier.

 

Have you tried turning it over by hand just to see if it will move? I hate to say it but this doesn't sound good.

 

put 5 qts in
and crank it over,
once it starts let it run till the light goes out,
then shut it off and inspect your work,
and then top it off

 

How did your father fix it? And what did he do specifically?

 

I agree with Krazz, get a large torque wrench or breaker bar and put it on the front nut of the balancer and try to turn it by hand. Now do not just try to move it a little and think it is good, go for a full roataion and try to get through all the cylinders. When I bought my P38 it had three busted pistons but still could roatate about half way through the cycle. It will let you see if there was any major issue before you turn it over.

Or you can also pul the oil pan and see if there are any signs in there that something major went wrong.

 

How did that happen?

 

When initally starting, the fuel pump relay feeds power to the fuel pump. Once oil pressure is sufficien, oil pressure sending unit circuit takes over providing power to the fuel pump. So without oil, you will be able to crank and it may run for a second, but will shut off because there's no oil pressure. I also agree you need to hand crank the engine at least 1 full rotation before attempting an actual start.