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buick straight rocker oiling


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Good day all, I just finished rebuilding my engine and it is oiling the push rod side of the rockers good but none to the valves. I put some lube on them took it for a quick cruze about a mile or so one way and back took valve cover off and no oild down the rocker at all the inside of the valve cover is dry exept push rod side. I cleaned ot th rockers complete dissassembled cleaned out the junk and cant figure it out. gage reads 45-55 lbs. Also some of the pushrods do not spin when running any help would be great Jeff

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#1...Is this a solid lifter car?

#2...Do you have the valves adjusted correctly?

#3...There are two types of adjuster ball studs on these rocker shafts...one for hydraulic lifters, one for solids...do you have the right one? The ball stud for hydraulics will have an extra oil passage to feed the lifters from above.

#4...After cleaning out the shaft, did you replace the plugs at the ends of the shaft?

#5...When cleaning out the shaft, did you also take all the rocker arms and ball studs off and clean out the crud from the oil holes? They will be completely packed with scum if you didn't...

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It is solid lifters rockershaft is off a 41 and adjusters also I put both plugs back in cleaned rockers with a instrument brush put it all in the homade dishwasher for a cycle. When driving it 12 years ago or more I remember it was not a lot of oil going to valve side but could see it slowly going. now it seems none are showing any. All the lines I blew out the valve lash is at .015 -.016 and is nice and quiet compared to what it used to sound like. all my push rods are solid ends and it oils like mad on those. maybe i should remove the filter after break in.I might need to go faster? the gage holds steady 45 at idle.

Also what should the compression be I'm not sure what the pistons are but look like the old ones I removed and it is low like 75 lbs witch is plenty I think as it is not a racer. Thanks to all jeff

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There is no direct oil feed to the valve side of the rocker. The oil comes up to the top of the arm from a drilled passage in the arm that lines up with a hole in the shaft, and runs externally down the top of the arm to the valve stem. See picture.

post-35932-14313855172_thumb.jpg

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Thank you i understand this part as I have owned this car for 27 years and just cant figure out why it is not pushing any oil out the squirt hole it seems that if pushrods are oiling the shaft is filling up fine. The old rocker shaft was worn on the bottom side along with rockers about 15 thousands and gouged pretty good that is why I put on this other set as they were like new.My oil lines are bigger than 1/8 " witch is normal size line I'm sure. I was wondering if you could put a T in the tube that feeds the rocker and run a smaller line accross the top the length of shaft and drill small holes for each rocker so oil would get on them for sure. I dont think this would affect oil pressure enough to cause a problem. I have noticed that some of the feed lines under valve cover are different length that go into rocker shaft some go in long way others just enough to get in rocker stand.

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Solid lifter engines do not feed a lot of oil compared to hydraulics. As long as the rocker arms are getting oil it should be OK. You have good oil pressure and have cleaned all the oil passages.

By the way I hope you are not using good ol' straight #30 motor oil. That alone could be the problem. Switch to 10W30 or Rotella 15W40 and do your motor a favor.

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Solid lifter engines do not feed a lot of oil compared to hydraulics. As long as the rocker arms are getting oil it should be OK. You have good oil pressure and have cleaned all the oil passages.

By the way I hope you are not using good ol' straight #30 motor oil. That alone could be the problem. Switch to 10W30 or Rotella 15W40 and do your motor a favor.

I'm useing 15/40 with zinc aditive. I did get a few bent pushrods some how and changed them but I have at least 45-1 hr run time on it and maybe 1 or 2 rockers have just a bit of oil showing an 1/8 on rocker.

On my old set it didnt take but a min or two and oil was going down them. even after driveing 20 blocks and back it was dryand the lubriplate I put on the tappets was still on top and should of been long gone I would think. Only if don from estas park colorado was alive this guy new straight eights and every one he rebuilt got better his 38 special had overdrive and would fly down the road getting 120 mph no problem. but thanks for reply and Iwill take it for a ride again and let you know what happens thanks Jeff

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Maybe this new rocker shaft is not the same as the old one...Might be worth making sure all the oil holes in the shaft are in the same place...If the old one oiled normally and the new one doesn't, even after a cleaning, something else is wrong. Do you still have the old shaft to compare it to?

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