Rocker Arm Oiling question

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Thanatos340

Thanatos340

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First time engine builder here. Actually Assembler is more accurate. I bought a crate 408 short block and doing final assembly.

I had everything assembled and went to spin up oil pressure using a drill and noticed I was not getting any oiling at all to the rocker arms. Engine was spinning up 80psi oil pressure on the stand using the drill and nothing at all to the rockers. I pulled the rockers on one side and tried again and still nothing. Pulled the Head and nothing. Shouldn't I be getting oil from the Hole I marked below if I have 80llbs oil pressure?? Am I missing something here or is there most likely a blocked oil passage somewhere?
 

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there is oil holes in the cam and if there not lined up no oil will flow to the rockers you should of turned the motor over while priming this will align the oil holes to let oil flow to the rockers .
 
Drop a coat hanger into that hole till it hits something. Slowly turn crank and sense any movement on the hangar. I think it should be physically touching the camshaft surface through a hole in the cam bearing. If not, pull cam, and look to see if bearing is installed correctly. Oh and of course, turn crank while spinning, it only lines up once a crank revolution.
 
Guys. Thanks. Had me worried there. After all the horror stories I have read about these crate motors, I am checking everything and pretty paranoid about it.

Now if I can just figure out a way to Prime and Turn the Engine at the same time solo, Might be redneck engineering in my near future..
 
You will have to position the crankshaft correctly so that the oil passage holes in the camshaft bearings line uo with the oil passagees in the heads. Rotate the crank slowly with a wrench while spinning the oil pump with the drill until you see oil on one bank. Continue rotating and you will get oil on the other bank.
 
Breaker bar and a hand drill...lol. You get used to it. The hardest part is looking at the gage while you're turning the crank and the priming shaft...
 
You don't really need to prime the rockers. All they need is some oil on the shafts and a little cam lube at both ends. If the rest of the motor is primed, about 5 seconds after the engine fires there will be plenty of oil getting to them.

But yeah, it is a great idea to verify that they are actually getting oil to them at this point in your build.
 
from another post by 70aarcuda
On a small block:
Turn the motor to 90* before top dead center coming up on #1 compression. The pass. side rockers should get oil.
Turn the motor to 20* after top dead center just past #6 compression. The drivers side rockers should get oil.

I never fire a motor without priming oil, fuel and setting initial timing for cam break in.
OP has a crate motor and the easiest way to verify the cam bearing lube passage is correct is to prime the oil system and check for rocker oil.
 
Just another thought, but the rocker shafts go on one way. there is a notch on them. My memory may be foggy so double check this. I think the drivers side (Left)rocker shaft notch goes to the front and the passenger side (Right) rocker shaft notch goes to the rear. I believe the oil come up to the shaft trough one of the rocker shaft pedestals and if the shafts are on backwards it may not get oil. Like I said read up on it because I am going by memory here and well you know how memory goes...
 
Ryan Ward said:
Just another thought, but the rocker shafts go on one way. there is a notch on them. My memory may be foggy so double check this. I think the drivers side (Left)rocker shaft notch goes to the front and the passenger side (Right) rocker shaft notch goes to the rear. I believe the oil come up to the shaft trough one of the rocker shaft pedestals and if the shafts are on backwards it may not get oil. Like I said read up on it because I am going by memory here and well you know how memory goes...
Click to expand...

you are correct, driver forward and down, passenger aft and down.
 
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