lifter galley crossover tube
I gotta say, Chevy engine have plenty of rod issues. When I used to drag race every weekend like a religion, it was a common thing to see BB Chevy engine chuck rods. It happened enough that it was sort of a truism people would toss around. Meanwhile, I ran for years on the same 6600RPM 440 that I never went into...in fact that engine is still in one piece. Stock rods, stock crank, Stock 5 quart oil pan. I changed oil every 2 weeks and drove the car properly. I have over 660 1/4 mile runs on it in addition to many street miles.
Personally...I think this thread borders on 'old-school fanaticism'. Use the biggest oil pump, the most pressure, etc. A lot of that thought is a Band-Aid approach to oiling. It might work, but it's not very hi-tech.
If you look at many modern design engines, they use 'oil management' as opposed to 'oil quantity'. We're kinda in that vein, too, but there's also a lot of 'throw as much oil at it as possible' going on.
I think a lot of 'oiling system' problems like bad rod bearings aren't oiling system problems at all. Rather, they are detonation problems, balance problems, material problems, missed shift problems, etc. that get blamed on the oiling system. Pushing the limits is a big part of going fast and racing...but exceeding the limits is a big part of failures.
I don’t think I said use a big pump. In fact, I reduced the pump by 20%.
It certainly IS about oil control. That’s what it is 100%.
As I said, if you’re killing rod bearings in a chevy the issue isn’t the oiling system. The big block has a very heavy piston. Using stock rods and making the big ends round was a sure bearing killer. If they are round when you bolt them to the crank, they won’t be round at speed, the bearing will grab the crank and it’s all over but the clean up.
But thats not an oiling system problem.
The other question is how many modern V8’s are getting RPM as high as 8000 or more? IDK because I’m not building any of those. Yet. Not sure I want to. I know the Gen III hemi has lifter issues because the CAFE standards has caused the OR’s to find every single bit of parasitic loss in the system, to the point the lifters get starved of oil, and then they fail.
I say to see what works, you need to look at engines that RPM in the range you need and/or want to use. AFAIK, all the aftermarket hemi stuff has near correct if not correct oil timing. I know, for a fact the Alan Johnson 481 platform has the correct oil timing even though the block takes most hemi parts.
Pro Stock and Comp Eliminator (kill Comp and bring back Modified NOW) all have blocks with correct oil timing.
The overwhelming evidence is for correct oil timing. The Chevrolet V8 platform in the architecture we all grew up looking at is by far the most used stuff. I’m betting they outnumber at any track 100:1 Chrysler stuff.
So when you look at the numbers on the basis of units in service at the RPM range we are discussing the number of oil system related failures are an order of magnitude higher for the Chrysler oil timing. It’s simple numbers.
And the other two facts are, not any Chrysler guys shift anywhere near 8000 or higher, and since that is so not 1 in 1000 will need to do anything but get a good pan/pick up, use full groove bearings, tube the block and use a HV pump because of the bearings.
You do that and they will live at any RPM under 8000. Around that and over it and you WILL have issues.
