Thread: slow oil circulation HELP!!

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Gentlemen or Ladies, I've rebuilt the 454 in a 74 Vett Roadster....Nothing special....Factory specs. I installed the modified distributor to prime the engine.....Attached the 1/2 in. drill (Max RPM of 860 RPM simulating engine speed of 1720 RPM) and start cranking.....60psi...new pump...electric guage. 30 seconds later oil begins to appear at the holes in the rocker arms on cyls 1, 3, 5, and 7 with sufficient flow to lube the valves. After 60 seconds or so oil appears at the rocker arms at cyls 8 and 6......Two to three minutes later the oil finally appears at the rocker arms for cyl's 4 and 2 and NEVER gets to sufficient volume to flow down the rocker arms to lube the valves. Clearances are within spec at all bearing surfaces.......Seems to be a major lack of flow restriction (or something) yielding less than sufficient flow/pressure to cyl's 1,3,5,7............Ready to set fire to this old stove!

Any ideas?

Tx

Tom

No I did not............Actually the rest of the story is that this engine was rebuilt.......And it had the identical lube problems that were mentioned...The engine was removed and the block cleaned by NAPA... lifter bores honed, cylinders honed and reassembled with another new cam, lifters, rocker arms and push rods and oil pump. These components were all replaced due to the short period of time the engine was run without a sufficient supply of oil....Evidenced by metal on metal sound comming from under the valve cover. I will try rotating the engine.

Go ahead and fire it up. The oil will get there with the cam turning and the lifters working in their bores. You could do as Denny says and turn it over a full turn and lube it again.

you probably have a lot of leakage around the base of your modified distributor/pre oiler

As far out in left field as it sounds, I was just reading the other night that it will take up to 20 minutes to lube a BBC.

Hell, between rounds I can take one apart and reassemble it (well, used to be able) in less time than that

Actually, if you used assembly lube ( that thick sticky red stuff that comp cams sells) it will take a long time to get it al pushed thru the pushrods to the valves----take out the lifters for number two cyl and see if you have good flow in the oil galley

We had a customer that filled his pushrods with goo and we took them all out and cleaned them and just used 5w30 and he had good flow immediately

For maximum benefit you should have a helper turn the engine over by hand 2-3 revs at the crank while priming with the sparks out. This will help distribute oil around the bearings and into the lifters more evenly.

Kitz