krooser

I am rebuilding a 330 for circle track use in a street stock. I see some casting flash in the square oil return hole in the lifter valley... I plan on deburring that.

Do you guys enlarge the small oil return holes also located in the lifter valley? Seems there isn't a whole lot of places for the oil to return to the pan.

What about on the heads? Any ideas would be helpful.

J-(Chicago)

The biggest oil bottleneck is in the back of the block where it is shaped like a letter Z. If you or your machinist have a pontiac block on hand, examine that and notice how the oil goes from biggest to smallest. You can modify your olds block in a similar fashion with some work, but you will be setting up a few different fixtures to get everything drilled up correctly.

As far as the heads go, if you are racing, I'd bypass the stock head drain back holes and just run 2 hoses from the back of the head to the pan.

krooser

Wow... lots better drainback on the Poncho...
http://image.highperformancepontiac....ter_galley.jpg

cutlassefi

And you can just use restricted pushrods.

krooser

I've been reading an old Smokey Yunick book and he sez to only restrict the oil to the top end if you run roller rockers which we can't. Of course this was for an "endurance" engine... 25 lap mains probably don't qualify.

I restricted the top end oil on my 351-C engines I used in the 80's but we had roller rockers. But we did this more to keep the bottom end together given the 351-C's poor oiling system.

Not sure what I will do...

L69

Main bearing oil restrictors and oil restricted pushrods are common practices that many folks use in the Olds world.

Run to Rund

Lifters that meter just enough oil instead of too much make the best fix. Stock Olds rockers don't need nearly as much oil as SBC.

cutlassefi

I have to ask how you know that.

jims2000lt

On my 455 i smoothed and polished the entire lifter valley, elongated thefront oil drain hole in to the timingchain area, chamfered the oil holes in the lifter valley, polished the underside of the cast valve covers, am running a baffle or plate? between the pump and main cap, polished the main cap oil channel and pump.
Using a Moroso 7 quart pan with melling HV pump with bolt on pickup tube which is safty wired.

I used to run a Mondello full lenght windage tray but it fit like crap and the welds broke so last winter I removed it.

Some people will say I didnt need to do all the polishing I did. I figured it cant hurt.

Run to Rund

First, a friend had a 455 with some plugged lifters and he got 2 weeks at a time out of cam lube on the pivots until he got around to a real fix.
Second, I have seen Chevy engines running without valve covers, and it looks like Old Faithful at Yellowstone. I have run Olds engines that just dribbled out a little oil and their rockers lasted forever.
Third, Olds rockers have done fine for me, no wear, with 150 lb seat, 370 lb open, and lifters that meter little oil. I know of NHRA stockers with stock rockers running 500 lb open.

455man

Anyone try the Milodon windage trays?
http://www.milodon.com/oil-system/wi...rays-studs.asp

krooser

Yunick mentioned that he would TIG weld oil baffles to the tip of the rocker arms to direct the oil to the rocker arm ***** to keep them lubed....

If you look at most engines that have stock rockers shafts like those on early Old's V-8 there is relatively little oil coming thru the shafts to lube the rockers. I think this is because there is such a relatively large bearing surface which would require less oil to do it's job. The later styles, like those of the sbc and sbf, have a smaller bearing area which, I would think, would generate heat from friction if not deluged in oil.

I'm thinking that keeping the oil in the pan is going to be a priority of mine... has anyone enlarged the oil return holes in the lifter gallery to gain more return of the oil to the pan?

cutlassefi

What's that have to do with oiling? That's more of structural point of interest, not really an oiling one don't you think?

I'm going to leave this one alone from here.
Thank you.

krooser

Found quite a bit of info here in previous posts... and a few from some other forums as well.

I think I'll take a good look at the block/heads after I get it back from being cleaned and make a plan of attack. It seems the oil return lines need to be larger... and maybe I'll polish the lifter gallery to try to help oil flow to the pan.

Maybe I can have my local hot rod machinist mill a few openings in the block above the cam so I can do an occasional visual inspection of the lobes as well as allowing me to pour more cam lube onto the lobes before I fire it up.

This whole deal has been an eye opener for me since I have never really messed with a modern Olds V-8...

Run to Rund

Running 500 lb. open spring pressure puts more load on the rocker pivots, yet they live with the stock Olds amount of oiling.
Chevy engines must have bigger oil return passages to accommodate the heavy top end oiling. They also have oiling systems and pumps, and smaller bearing diameters. Until Melling etc. gave us bigger oil pumps, Olds engine builders had to be very careful with bearing clearances and top end oiling, not straying far from stock clearances and lifter oiling to the rockers.

cutlassefi

So a weak rocker will be fine at 500# open as long as it has an ample amount of oil? I beg to differ.

And he's talking SBO's here. A SBC has 2.450 mains and 2.100 rods. SBO has 2.500 mains and 2.123 rods. So .050 and .023 respectively will make that much of a difference? I don't buy that either.
HV pumps have been available for years. Not that big a deal.

Sorry but I don't agree with your statements at all.

Jmo.