This summer the engine overheated. The gauge did not bury and probably maxed out at 2/3 of its travel, by the time I shut it down. Some antifreeze and steam came out of the radiator overflow for a few minutes.
When I originally installed this engine I primed it with a drill and I think it had about 60 lbs of pressure on the gauge, that I temporarily installed. But the 69 Swinger only has an idiot light, which I believed worked properly. So, I don’t know what the actual oil pressure was during daily drives.
I temporarily reinstalled the oil pump and oil pan and replenished the oil. I primed the oil pump and a small flow of oil did come out of the holes in the bottom of the bearings. I reinstalled the cam and rotated the cam and the crank in small increments, but no oil came out of the pedestal in each head and it showed no oil pressure on the gauge . But there was a massive stream of oil pouring out from the oil galley behind the No. 8 exhaust lifter bore. And there was no oil in the other bank’s lifter bores. I didn’t think at the time, to reinstall the lifters and see what effect that had. I expect that this is the normal oiling; where the oil goes from the oil pump to the oil galley on the passenger side and is distributed to the rest of the block, if the lifters are in place. Can this be confirmed?
Does anybody have any words of wisdom on the extreme bearing wear? Thanks!