Fresh motor assembly. No oil to top end.

[robert1]

If you can come up with something to drive the dtsit. with, a speed handle with a screwdriver blade and long extension you could look at the hole that intersects the dist. And see if you have goood oil flow out of that hole. Even if the rear cam bearing is installed incorrectly you should still have enough pressure to oil the top.

[SonnyJames]

If you can come up with something to drive the dtsit. with, a speed handle with a screwdriver blade and long extension you could look at the hole that intersects the dist. And see if you have goood oil flow out of that hole. Even if the rear cam bearing is installed incorrectly you should still have enough pressure to oil the top.

You will not have good pressure to the top or the gauge if the oil galley is uncovered. You can use a pressure pot installed where the gauge is plumbed and pressure feed it while looking under the motor with the pan off. Oil will be gushing out from the hole drilled through the last cam journal washing past the dist gear. You could take the motor out,take the back freeze plug out and look at the position of the bearing with the cam slid forward and tell. I had a machinist install my bearing also...he did the last one wrong. Back in the day the last cam bearing was extra wide...not anymore and there is the potential for wrong installation. Plenty of oil was flowing through the back oil galleys also when this condition was present in my SBC. I kept burning the front few pushrods on the pass side and the gauge was always sluggish never reaching what I thought the motor should have pressure wise. FYI, I was able to remove and install back bearing from behind.

[user-z68766209]

Couple of things...
You said only 40psi with a drill even with a 3/8 drill you should have had more then that..
So I would say plug is out...

The other deal I will comment on is even with a 1/2 drill and 60-70psi and rotating the
motor over on the dyno with spark plugs out with the starter and get oil every were. It takes time to install
the dist. and wires bla bla bla. And start it I can tell you this I had clear valve covers for my dyno
and even after doing the above priming it can take a few min. to get oil to all the rockers.
With the clear covers it scared the heck out of me the first time I did this...
I used it as a tool to show customers to let the motor run for a few before the rev up
competition in the pits start.

Brian B
Dakota Parts Warehouse
The Ferrea Valve Guy
Stocking Hylomar
Ask about our Fast Setting Silicone...its fast.
877 235 2832

[peej410]

Alright, I spent about half an hour with my half inch milwaukee priming the motor. It makes 50psi with a crap sunpro guage. Only after turning the motor over a few dozen times did oil begin to seep out of the pushrods. small chunks of assembly lube came out aswell. It seems as if at .010 or so off the base circle does the oil start to come out through the pushrods. I did get oil to every last pushrod/lifter assembly. It is VERY slow.

Everyone talks about oil restriction to the cylinder heads... how little is too little?

At idle it makes over 60PSI base on previous starts. I wont be starting it again until the car is together enough to drive. From what little I know its better to break in the rings under load. Any specific break in recommendations for a roller cam motor?
Also, how long should I wait before a leak down test to see how the rings are seating?

[robert1]

You will not have good pressure to the top or the gauge if the oil galley is uncovered. You can use a pressure pot installed where the gauge is plumbed and pressure feed it while looking under the motor with the pan off. Oil will be gushing out from the hole drilled through the last cam journal washing past the dist gear. You could take the motor out,take the back freeze plug out and look at the position of the bearing with the cam slid forward and tell. I had a machinist install my bearing also...he did the last one wrong. Back in the day the last cam bearing was extra wide...not anymore and there is the potential for wrong installation. Plenty of oil was flowing through the back oil galleys also when this condition was present in my SBC. I kept burning the front few pushrods on the pass side and the gauge was always sluggish never reaching what I thought the motor should have pressure wise. FYI, I was able to remove and install back bearing from behind. [/quote]

If the cam bearing is installed from the front and the groove is open to the rear you will still have enough oil flow to lube the top. If the cam bearing is installed so far to the rear that the groove is open to the front then I would NEVER use that person again as someone had to install the cam plug and that would be way more than obvious!

[582r10]

Alright, I spent about half an hour with my half inch milwaukee priming the motor. It makes 50psi with a crap sunpro guage. Only after turning the motor over a few dozen times did oil begin to seep out of the pushrods. small chunks of assembly lube came out aswell. It seems as if at .010 or so off the base circle does the oil start to come out through the pushrods. I did get oil to every last pushrod/lifter assembly. It is VERY slow.

Everyone talks about oil restriction to the cylinder heads... how little is too little?

At idle it makes over 60PSI base on previous starts. I wont be starting it again until the car is together enough to drive. From what little I know its better to break in the rings under load. Any specific break in recommendations for a roller cam motor?
Also, how long should I wait before a leak down test to see how the rings are seating?

I've never primed an engine like that and I've built a bunch of them. On Chevies I use an old distributor without the gear and run it for about 20 seconds once I see decent non fluctuating oil pressure I'm done priming. Priming the oil system is strictly to get the air out of the system before starting the engine and to make sure everything will get oil not air when it starts. No benefit to running a drill for 30 minutes unless you just don't have anything else to do.

As far as no oil to the top end goes, did you start it with warm oil, cold oil, heavy weight oil? If the lifters are edge orifice then don't expect a diluge of oil from the top end it'll get just enough oil to live, which is plenty. As long as you lubed everything on assembly then you should start it up and warm it up good. Seems like that's your choices, start it and warm it up or tear it down.

A boy that worked for me one time built a stock 350 for his mom's Chevy station wagon. He lubed everthing except the rockers. He started that thing up and the (stock) rockers on it squeaked for about 20 minutes so I guess that's how long it takes for oil to get up there fully. That was a gruesome exersize but I couldn't get him to shut it down and lube the rockers he just ran it and ran it. He said his mom would never know the difference, figuring he thought the same way about me I let him go a week later.



Roger
582r10

[Boz-Race Engines]

it will take awhile with edge orifice lifters to get the oil up. just lube the rocker gear well before you start it up and it will be fine.