Break In Disaster????????

I just read through this thread and thought I would not my experience out there.

You oil pressure sounds completely normal to me for a stock pump. Every small block I have built started cold at 80 or so psi and idled around 40 to 50 warmed up. Still can reach 80 when throttled up.

As far as your oil coming out of the rocker shaft bolt. Lots of good advice here. Definitely clean the insides and inspect them. Make sure the bolts go into the threads smooth and the length is proper. Aside from that, I have not watched my valve train for oil coming around the bolts so I do not know what is a problem and what is normal.

On your oil leak, I prefer felpro gaskets. I do not use a torque wrench and tighten them by feel. I dont use any silicone. Make sure the flange of the valve cover is streight. Check for cracked corners of the valve covers. Verify the leak isn't something else. Check the back of the intake and distributor o ring. Make sure you clean your oil off the engine completely. The leak could be fixed and you are seeing old oil dripping from under the vehicle.
Good luck
Thanks for the input, all the gaskets looked good as far as I can tell and I was able to use another set of valve cover gaskets that were 3/16 to a 1/4 thick and I am still getting that leak from them. I had a though but it seams a real stretch, I am using a 90 degree filter and with the manifolds I have I couldn't run it out the back like they're meant to be run instead I faced it forward and facing a but up, my question is do you think this reposition could be causing the high oil pressure? I might run to the junkyard tomorrow and get a regular adapter to see if that might work. I have a aluminum 90 that looks like it's flow is 10 times better than that stock one but noticed the bolts that run through them aren't the same so I want able to use it.

Jake
BTW, Jake, the leaks out of the rocker shafts can come from any bolt....the whole interior of the shafts will fill with oil to some degree if the engine pressure is on the high side (despite the 'oil pressure interrupter' in the cam design), and pressure can build up inside them if the flow out of the shaft to the rockers is slow. All bolts in the shaft can see the same pressure, so they can leak on any one. The adjustable rockers will be the most prone to do this by their design; they fit pretty snugly on the shaft.

BTW, we recently primed our new 340 with PRW rockers, and the oil flow out of the shafts was just a slow flow or dribble at each point between the rockers, with 67 psi showing on the test gauge and 10W30. And that is with the cam lined up and no interruption of pressure. (However, the PRW shaft restricts the oil into the shaft interiro more than the stock shafts.)

As for 340dartley's comment, I have to ask what weight oil he is running. If it is at 80 a lot, then his oil may be on the heavy side. I have to wonder what the pressure relief valve is doing.....or not.

But, I was almost thinking of telling Jake a similar thing: that maybe the best thing to do after good top end checks is run it carefully for a while and keep and eye on it, stay with the lighter weight oils (which promotes better overall flow rates and cooling anyway), if the top end leaks can be satisfactorily managed. It is not quite at the level where I have blown out filter base gaksets; that was at 100psi). Pulling the motor would be a lot of work, thought pulling the pan might not be as bad, depending on your tooling.

Thanks for all your help this far, it's greatly appreciated. I am going to get a mic today and have a look at the shafts and possibly pick up another set if needed tomorrow.

Jake