Hi, This is my first time in this sight and have a question. I recently purchased a 1957 chevy with a rebuilt 283 engine that has been sitting for about 15 years. Today I got the motor running and it ran pretty good for the first start up but then after about running it for about 15 minutes the engine started to squeek and it was not the generator or water pump. As I started to investigate, there was no oil in the top valve rocker arm area. Do you think that the oil pump is not working? I don't have any of the dash board lights hooked up yet so I can't check the oil light. The other thing that I can only think of is to hook up a oil gauge but with the 238 v8 the oil gauge sending unit is way in the back and hard to get at. Any suggestions from anyone?  

SHOULD HAVE PRIMED OIL PUMP, PROBABLY THE SQUEEK U HEARD IS BEARINGS SPINNING, A BAD THING  

Do you think that it would be a rod bearing or a crank bearing?  

Doesn't matter, either way the motor's gotta come out and be disassembled for inspection. You can't take the chance on having a major bearing problem and not fixing it, then you run the risk of trashing the engine block, and crank.  

The squeek might have been just the rocker balls screaming for mercy!!Pull your valve covers and take the pushrods out.If the motor has not run in a while,it's a REAL good chance the the oil has gummed up inside them.Just blow thru them with some carb cleaner(Walmart's Super Tech is the best IMHO)till you can see thru them good.That might get some oil to the top end