I just rebuilt my 2.5 and have been working out the bugs since I first ran it. I have started the motor 3 or 4 times and only driven it in and out of the garage; it has probably on ran for 30 minutes, idling at speeds of 2000 or 900 RPM. Pulled the oil pan off yesterday to redo the gasket and decided to change the filter while I was at it. To my surprise the filter didn't puke a bunch of oil all over the motor, I took a look inside and the inner part you can see was dry. There was assembly lube on the outer holes along with a little clean motor oil, the outer part of the filter must be packed with assembly lube because it is significantly heavier than the new one. The outer holes on the part of the block that the filter screws onto had the same thing, but the tube it screws onto only had a little bit of oil in it from what I could tell. I had filled the oil pump with assembly lube to prime it during the rebuild, not Vaseline as per the manual. I don't have an oil pressure gauge and when I started it for the first time I just figured I would pull the fuel pump fuse and crank the motor for a minute or two to get good oil circulation. The oil didn't show any signs of chewed up metal that I would expect if the pump really wasn't working for 30 minutes of idling- I would also expect to have spun a bearing or seized something in that amount of time. Is the pump working but the filter not able to pass the assembly lube? Are my bearings likely toast? Should I just crank the motor over with the filter off until oil comes out instead of assembly lube, then just go with it?

Likely what happened is the filter clogged with the grease. The bypass valve opened and pumped oil to the engine. I would replace the filter, add a little oil and I bet life is good. Larry