how many what and to where are you submitting? Lets assume days and to google/yahoo/msn... the answer is simply it depends, submitting wont do much for the big 3, you need back links plain and simple. Get linking partners, use Digital Point, buy links, do something. You can see spiders w/in 24 hours of a high PR link but indexing may take much longer on a new site. Its best to build the site, get links, and not even bother checking rankings for a few weeks. Spend that time building new sites and repeating the money making process.
Assuming you are only talking about the big 3, (MSN/Yahoo/Google). In my limited experience, spiders do come around within a day or two of finding a backlink, (even from a PR0 site). But then it can take weeks for the site to actually show, (be indexed). MSN will normally show you first within a week or two. Then Yahoo within a month. And Google can take up to two or three months. But, unfortunately there is no exact rule about it all, your experience might be different. FFMG