Sumps, external pumps + drilling

[blacknife]

will an external pump pull the air out of an over the top setup without manualy priming?

want to switch to a used sump i got at the fragfest, my current sump is drilled, and i can drill the new sump no problems i just wanted to save on downtime in between and just fully redo my plumbing in place then just swap the pump over to the new sump when i pull it off. hah still just a "temporary" sump on a "temporary" setup.
temporary as in i want a bigger tank but do not know when it will happen.