I have a 1964 394 in 58 super 88, bought from a old timer huge project . The engine was supposedly rebuilt . Pulled the distributer and tried to prime counter clockwise Engine will not prime the tip end or lifters . Actually unsure if Im getting oil anywhere , however when I prime with the drill the oil psi idiot light goes out . I also pulled the sender out and had oil pressure there/ pumped out .. Removed rocker shaft pushrods and hydro lifters out , primed some more and no oil comig up to the lifters or rocker shaft , I have burnt two drills out priming and a good few hours, have also cranked the engine over while priming .. Does anybody know the oil flow route ? Or a diagram with the oil passages? Any help would be great ...

 

I had a similar problem with a 394 that was "rebuilt" before I purchased it. I had enough pressure to turn off idiot light. There was no oil to ligters or rockers. I put a gauge on where the idiot light sender was and wow was reading 3PSI. This is just enough to keep the oil light off...scary! Turns out an oil galley plug was left out of the engine. This is common when a Chevy guy works on an Olds engine.

 

Well I'm a chevy guy and damn close to pulling this motor and dropping a chevy into it .. Where are these oil galleys you say?

 

As usual, the Service Manual is your friend:



You will note that the oil does not travel up through the pushrods, but through a separate channel, through the central rocker shaft base, and to the rocker pivots.

Hope those weren't nice drills...

- Eric

 

Wow I would need to pull out the shop manual as I cant remember the location. !st you should do as I did and actually measure your oil pressure. Another thread similar to this is going on and a member siad try rotating the crank manually some while priming with the drill motor.

 

Thanks for that diagram Eric . I've been searching for one of those ,may have to invest in a manual..

I will grab a mechanical gauge from work tomorrow and check that out, I have tried turning the engine over while priming the engine and still not getting oil .

I guess it probably wouldn't be the rear gallery plugs as it would puke out the back of the engine ?

The front plugs would be located behind the cover / water pump?

 

In the meantime, just download a copy for free from WildAboutCars.

By the way, I just read through the '64 engine section, and I could find no explicit statement that the oil does not come up through the pushrods, but I do remember it as a quirk of this motor, so anyone who has a very clear memory of it is welcome to chime in.

- Eric

 

Must be getting old but I am pretty sure the galley plug that was missing was at the rear of the engine and I could see it when I pulled the distributer. I know I did not separate the engine from the trans to install the galley plug. I cant picture though what I actually did!

 

Here's the other thread talking about this same issue-
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...olid-info.html

 

Disclaimer: I'm no expert or machinist and sometimes I stick my foot in my mouth and do dumb stuff, but I do have a bit of common sense. Upon inspecting two original stock rocker arm assemblies and finding the same wear patterns is where I've drawn my conclusion that this IS a factory design problem.
I just had the same issue 2 days ago. There are two places in the rotation where the oil goes to one bank and then the other bank, I turned my engine a 1/2" at a time and marked the balancer with chalk until I found the" sweet spots" Then I paint penned lines at each spot. Unfortunately your going to be more disappointed to find out the oil holes in the shaft don't even direct the oil to the rockers. I have a new set of rocker assemblies and the only plus to them is the vendor put screws were the little plug goes so I can actually remove them to see when the oil comes up to the shaft. My oil is trying to blow out the end caps and I've almost smoked a drill also. I must be missing something because there's holes in the pushrod side of the rocker and no signs whatsoever of any oil ever coming out of them. SO, I took matters into my own hands and did a little measuring to find out where the hole in the shaft should really be and its not even close to the original hole. I called Gary at www.rockerarms.com (BTW the company did have some problems a few years ago but the employees have taken it over) and he said he only likes to rebuild the original stuff and that he can put some bushings with grooves in them to channel the oil to the hole. I just sent him my cores today. I got several parts of my anatomy tied up in this build and I'm not going to fire it until I have oil in all the right places. (I will have more photos up on my build thread in the Major project forum soon) So if you would like to call me and I can give you some more feedback please fill free to do so. My # is 209-327-2903 in California. You would think when all these new shafts flooding the internet that someone would have fixed this problem and put the holes in a different place. My search on the internet hasn't come up with any good answers.

 

So I hooked up a mechanical gauge to the oil psi sender port on the filter housing and while priming the engine with a drill I picked up 17psi.. The drills a little weak so I'm guessing that with the engine actually running at say 1200 rpm it should boost oil psi up between 40 and 60 psi .. After another while of priming the engine and rotating the crank occasionally with the intake and cam/lifter cover removed I started to see some oil coming out of the lifters on the passenger side of the engine .. I tried to rotate the engine over and I am still getting absolutly no oil to the drivers side lifters / rockers. I have the rockers shaft removed , pushrods and lifters also removed . I should have enough pressure to push oil over to the drivers side of the engine, but still not even a drop of oil.

also having 17pounds of oil pressure should be safe to say the gallery plugs are installed or I couldn't see the engine gaining any pressure at all, it would just move volume of oil out of the missing gallery plug and return back to the oil pan ?

Is there another oil pressure port on the engine I can hook my gauge up to and see if the psi is getting any further ?

 

I don't know about another oil pressure test port, but I did have an idea to test a theory. You said you're getting no oil to the drivers side. I wonder if the head gasket could be installed incorrectly, blocking the oil passage? You mentioned that you have the rocker shaft off. Try to blow some compressed air into the oil passage. If it backs up instantly you probably have a restriction.

 

I have tried that allready ,blew shop air and it seams to be going threw . Also note I don't have any oil lower then the heads , down in the hydraulic lifters , I have all the driver side lifters removed and absolutly no oil passing threw . It's like it's completely cut of oil flow to the left side of the engine.