Rockers & Valves 1918 4-Cylinder

[ADade]

Need some (additional) advice on the valves on my 1918 4-Cyl:

 

1.  On the rocker arms there are two oil holes.  The one on the rod end (red arrows) the oil holes have felt inserts that we should be able to remove and replace with new, clean felt, right?

2.  On the axle portion of the rocker there appears to be a cap (blue arrow) that retains what we suspect is another felt oil pad.  Should we attempt to remove the cap to replace that pad as well?  Suggested procedure for such a move without damaging the cap?

3.  Valves.  This car was restored in the 1950's and the valves we removed from it appear to match Chevrolet small block valves.  Does anybody have the exact specs for the OEM valve?  Exhaust and intake seem to be identical.  I'm willing to have valves made if there's a reason we can't use the Chevy valves, but I don't have specs for the OEM valves.  I discussed this with Terry Wiegand -- he has a drawing of the 6-cyl valve, but they're not the same.  Would appreciate opinions or assistance.

Edited December 22, 2018 by ADade (see edit history)

[Brass is Best]

Make and model of car would help.

[mike6024]

 

[ADade]

Sorry - 1918 Buick E4-34

 

One other thing that has us scratching our heads - the diameter of my shafts on the rocker arm supports are 437 thousands.  We broke one of the supports and I got one replacement from Dean Tryon and another from Larry Schramm -- both have shafts of 420 diameter, so the rockers don't fit.  Larry helped me get mine welded, so I can easily use that, but I'm mystified at the differences.  Could this have been a mid-production run change?

 

Edited December 22, 2018 by ADade (see edit history)

[Stude17]

8 hours ago, ADade said:

Sorry - 1918 Buick E4-34

 

One other thing that has us scratching our heads - the diameter of my shafts on the rocker arm supports are 437 thousands.  We broke one of the supports and I got one replacement from Dean Tryon and another from Larry Schramm -- both have shafts of 420 diameter, so the rockers don't fit.  Larry helped me get mine welded, so I can easily use that, but I'm mystified at the differences.  Could this have been a mid-production run change?

 

I know nothing about 1918 Buick engines but I would suggest that sometime in the engine's past (possibly when work was done in the 1950's) the rockers and shaft were worn so the shaft was replaced with a larger one and the rockers and pillar blocks (supports) were reamed to suit. 

[Ivan Saxton]

0.437 is more logical than o.420 .    0.4375 is the actual size, which is 7/16 of an inch

[Stude17]

As Adade advises he sourced two supports of 0.420 shaft size from different sources I would suggest 0.420 is the original shaft size and the 0.437 shaft size is more likely the result of the original being worn and replaced with the larger shaft.

[Larry Schramm]

It would appear that from the first picture that the rockers, etc were remade when the engine was rebuilt in the 50's.  I have never seen brass rockers.  As for the felt, I would say yes to your questions on putting new felt in those cavities.

[ADade]

Larry -- I don't know why the parts appear to be brass in the photo -- they're not, and they don't look like that in person.

[ADade]

On a slightly different topic -- does anybody have an OEM valve from a 1918 Buick 4-cyl they'd be willing to loan me (I'll return)?

 

We're contemplating using Chevy small block valves in this rebuild, and they appear to match the valves that came out of my engine, but I'm 99% sure the valves we took out are not OEM, and we're just trying to identify the difference between the OEM and Chevy valves.