Thread: no oil to the right side of the head

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I have recently overhauled a 400 Pontiac After setting the engine back in I had a "miss in the number 4 and 6 cylinder. I decided to touqe the rockers while the engine was running. The left side went well. When I started on the right side, I noticed no oil coming out of the push rods. I have good oil pressure on the gauge and the left side was oiling good. Any suggestions?

Originally posted by woodhook13
I have recently overhauled a 400 Pontiac After setting the engine back in I had a "miss in the number 4 and 6 cylinder. I decided to touqe the rockers while the engine was running. The left side went well. When I started on the right side, I noticed no oil coming out of the push rods. I have good oil pressure on the gauge and the left side was oiling good. Any suggestions?

Did you take the oil galley plugs out before you cleaned the block? Blow air through ALL the passageways after the block was boiled? Could be sludge or debris plugging the galley? Just a thought.

same thing happened to me and it was the hidden oil galley plug behind the cam plug on the back on the block, good luck

Since I failed to even know there was an oil galley plug, will this require me to pull the engine out, or can I get to the plug from under the center head? I can't thank you guys enough for your response.

to install the plug correctly you have to at least pull the trans back and the flywheel off, but i have heard of guys being able to reach it throught the distributor hole, i opted to pull the trans back because it was easier than pulling the motor, if you drop the plug you will most likely have to pull the pain to fish it out , this particular plug is a threaded plug, hope this helps you out some, this also lends a good lesson: it is a good idea to prime a new motor when it is on the stand with the valve covers off to make sure everthing is oiling properly

Well, I have learned a very good lesson and I will prime any engine the next time. thanks again wingnut and Pro70.

no problem, let us know how it turn out and what the cause ends up being

I can't remember any visual image of a plug in the area of the flywheel. I used a Chilton's manual when we were assembling the engine and I don' recall the oil plugs being mentioned. I bought a cheap ($13) firebird manual last month but it is not very detailed. Can you tell me of a good manual that would be good to use? thanks

actually i am going off of personal experience on this one, the first engine i ever rebuilt was a 68 pontiac 400 and i ended up with the same problem. luckily i had become pretty good friends with the guy who did the machine work on my motor(it's amazing how fast you make friends when i costs you $1000) he is actually the one who gave me this hint and then i was reading the next months car craft magazine and they did an article on firt time engine rebuilds and sure enough there it was for pontiac motors, if you leave this oil galley plug out there will be no oil to the right side head, i have never read a manual on how to rebuild a pontiac motor so i don't know which ones are informative or not but i do know from personal experience that the oil galley plug is behind the cam plug, if you remove the cam plug from the rear of the block it is a thread in plug behind that. good luck that is were i would start especially if you don't recall installing one, you should howevere be able to remove the distributor and use a telescoping mirror and flashlight to look into the hole and see if there is one in there, or feel down there with your finger i remember being able to feel it with my middle finger when it was missing, it is about 3 or 4 inches into the distributor hole towards the rear of the block, good luck

Thanks wingnut, you have given me more insite on rebuilding engines than I could have ever read anywhere.

well you learn from error and lets just say i have made lots of errors, the only thing you can to is make it a learing experience so you can later help a fellow hot rodder

Just found this topic, checked my shortblock and found the same problem. Are there any other other potential problems I can look for before installing a rebuilt 455?

Steve

I've been turnin wrenchs for goin on 35 years and I've never seen any repair manuals that mention the location of oil galley plugs, although thru the machining process all engines have them, Any machine shop worth their salt removes all of these plugs for hot tanking, and usually hands ya a box full of plugs when ya pick up the block leaving you to figure out where they go, Don't sweat it guys ya aint the first or the last guy to ever leave one out, ( My Old Man always said a smart guys nuthin more than a dumb S.O.B. with a lot of experiance) And as Proz said even though it's been tanked every thing should be at least blown out,
I always use Hot soapy water, my engine brush set and compressed air to clean everything out before assembly, and always,always prime the oil system fore ya fire up a fresh engine.....