Thread: 454 lack of oil on valve train - Suggestions

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Expanding on Matt's post (#14) 65 and 66 use grooved rear cam bearing journal and bearing. However, there were no 454's available in those years, so that shouldn't be the problem. Are you sure the cam bearings are correct?

Tech, the push rods were new Crane ones from the kit. We have pulled all of them, puckered up and blew through them with no problem (yuck, why did I get in on that part of the job?). You can see daylight perfect in all of them.
Henry, he pulled the cam when doing the reassembly but has not gone back and looked at the cam bearing alignment since the lack of oil began. Might be down to that next.
Shine, he feels the plugs in the oil passages are all in but he may have to resort to a complete tear down and flush per your suggestion.

When I came in from the store this evening, I heard the drill running across the street which is not too encouraging. Let you know what is happening. We really would like to thank all of you for taking this under your hats and making suggestions. It does help.

Ray, I wouldn't overlook what Matt mentioned about aftermarket distributors, either -

Originally Posted by Matthyj

....some aftermarket distributors castings block off the oil passage incorrectly not allowing oil to the top end....

sometimes starting over is easier . inspecting the berings would be a good starting place. not sure what tech is referring to but if tech says dont do it then dont do it. maybe atf would be a better choice.

tech , is it the bearing you would worry about with gunk ?

Originally Posted by shine

sometimes starting over is easier . inspecting the berings would be a good starting place. not sure what tech is referring to but if tech says dont do it then dont do it. maybe atf would be a better choice. tech , is it the bearing you would worry about with gunk ?

Here's your statement: "if it is out on a stand i would drain the oil and put carb cleaner in it and fire up the drill."
I was visualizing carb cleaner like you spray from a can and the damage it can do to the human body from breathing it. I guess you were talking about carb cleaner gunk that comes in a 5 gallon can. Sorry, please excuse my mis-interpretation. Senior moment.

.

yeah the spray stuff is kaka. as a painter i dont like aresol anything. brake cleaner is even worse . that stuff can kill you quick if you clean then weld.
naphtha would likely be better. lot cheaper too . i use the gunk to soak old guns in and such .

Just a long shot. If,big IF, assembly lube was used over 6 months to a year(?)This stuff coagulates and now floating around in the oil passages. It has happened, don't ask, hope you find and report the fix rather than last post and nobody that helped gains any pertinent info,
BadBehavior

Young boat owner is having to work for a living during the week. Let you know how this all turns out for sure.

this is a mark 4 block all oil to lifters feed thru the back cam bearing 65/67 had no groove and needs a groove cut in to the cam could be as late as 68 as there were no 454s till 1970 but could be a 427 as block are the same bore .with that cam bearing out .the housing bore has a 360 groove 68-89 or around there till gm whent to gen 5 and 6 but the 360 groove is still there . the main feeds two one feed per side of block go to lifters oil gallys this the only place were it gets upper oil. if they were restricted.. this can be done with a plug that has a stand off that put s a plug that stops only a small meter of oil going threw the main lifter gally like moroso 22017 then there is were some engine builders drill and tap the main lifter feed them only can come out with rear cam bearing out has they are set in the rear cam housing bore groove they can be very hard the see less you done some .if oil feed left/right side of block is about the same .then its not the distributor body made wrong as there is no cross over oil feed with distributor out it will not complete oil feed to the lifters

Boat =hole in water, which must be filled with money

You are not going to believe the last item that happened.
Owner took out the crank, removed bearings (bearings oiling, looked like new), and examined all surfaces of bearings and block for gunk - they were clean.
Next step was to remove cam and pull the back bearing hoping for blockage, No junk in block groove under bearing. Ran wire from pump
to cam bearing hole, ran wire from main bearing to cam bearing hole. Wire moves around easy in hole indicating passage is free. Blew compressed
air in passages, nothing cam out except minor oil drop. Opened oil passages to lifters front and rear - could see right thru them. Now really stumped.
Previous to the last run, he had also replaced the Mellings oil pump with no change. Without finding any reason for blockage, he put it back together. He built
a temporary engine stand so he could hook up ignition and fuel. Filled it up with new 15w-40 or 15w-50, I don't remember which. Primed it, fired it,
and result was same as before, very slow to get any oil to any rockers. Only a couple of rear rockers were getting a tiny bit of oil at best.
Elected to plug oil bypass at filter, refired - same result. Other neighbor who had been helping went to his house and brought back 5w-30 oil.
Drained and replaced oil with 5w - darned if the rockers did not start to oil everywhere after about a minute of running. Shut it down and let
it cool - refired and after about a minute rockers started to squirt oil out into the air. Tonight, same result except on second run he replaced Fram
filter with AC Delco and it seemed to have a slight stronger squirt. I find it hard to believe that the oil weight change from 15 to 5 could have been
the problem, yet it appears that until that change nothing else made a difference. Comments?

Denny, don't know if he measured them. The crank was turned on mains when rebuilt and proper bearings put in. Don't know about rods other than proper bearings put in. Vatting, boring, cam bearing installation, and piston to rod assembly was done by what is considered to be the best shop in town. Bearing selection was done following their instruction. All bearings we have taken out appear to have no damage in any fashion. At this point crank has been out twice and reassembled.

on race bbc used 50w oil many time and very loose bottom ends and still get upper end oil did you check what i posted ? if you went to a thinner oil that tells me you have some thing that blocking top end oiling as mark 4 bbc oil mains first then upper eng if your very big on bearing running clearnce you pass so much oil tru the mains and rod that thinner oil would be harder to get feed to top end .if you want there some things i have seen over the years building bbc that i could point you to if you want to call me .if you want any time after 2:30 McCarthyPerformance 667-4071

does the front two lifter galley plugs have the .025 holes in them???????

Hi, not ignoring anyone's comments. I am waiting on catching the owner to tell him about them. It might be the weekend before we get together. I am willing to plascit-gauge the mains and rods if he wants to pull it back apart. I really don't expect to find a large difference there. I found out the lifter bores were honed. I don't think a measurement was made of them. I do recall the lifter did not seem loose in the block - can I tell .002 give? Good question.
Pat, we ran wires from the rear main up to the cam and did not find any sign of blockage. After I know more, I may give you a call, thanks.
Jerry, I never checked the front plugs other than when he had them out. I am guessing the .025 holes are for oiling the timing chain area. Is that correct?
I hope to stay with this problem until a solution is found and report back. I just hate it when something gets fixed and the op never states what was the cure.