I doubt the vasoline has anything to do with the oil coming up to the rockers . The melting point of vasoline is only a little over 100 degrees.at any rate I guess I’ll pull the distributor and give it another try with the drill . if I still can’t get oil up there I’m going to tear it all apart and put in a new cam and lifters.

 

Never said it did or did not. I was pointing out the pure folly of it.

 

Is the lack of oiling isolated to a certain area? We're the lifters disassembled and cleaned? Are the lifters the ones that were in it and were presumably oiling ok? Pushrods are absolutely clear and open?

Hard to understand with 60 psi.

How does it sound, any tapping?

 

no tapping in the short time I ran it , brand new push rods . The lifters are the originals but I only cleaned them I didn’t completely disassemble them . Only the two passenger side rear are not getting oil I have to pull the valve cover on the other side to see where if any are dry . I’m going to see what the guage says when I run the drill .

 

Hmm...I'd run that drill for quite awhile in hopes the oil finds it way up. Remove the rockers/pushrods and look down toward the lifters to look for oiling occurring.

Keep us posted...

 

So i ran my 1/2 inch drill wide open for a good 7 or 8 minutes and now looking closely i only have oil to a few of the rockers (aye!!)if i look down the pushrod hole there is oil gushing up and it appears its coming from between the lifter bore and lifter.These lifters must have some kind of restriction in their oil holes. my oil pressure gauge using the drill reads 60 pounds of oil pressure as well. Im done ******* with it until i have time to at least pull the intake and maybe try some other used lifters to see what happens there. I guess i could always just buy a set of lifters . I should have never buttoned it up until i had good oil to all rockers (lesson learned there. "put it together and run it you'll be fine they said") As always thanks for the help and ill give an update when i find something

 

Understood, take a break...

When you get back to it the lifters aren't a big deal to disassemble and clean. Take several small jars, disassemble the lifter and put its parts in one jar and soak them in lacquer thinner. Clean, inspect. oil and reassemble.

 

I pulled the intake and decided to try and completely disassemble a couple of the problem lifters ,Spent an hour trying to remove the inner plunger out of the first one then thought how silly it is to try and take all 16 50 year old lifters apart and hope they work when im all finished . Not to mention keeping track of where they all go( i can't remember where i put my car keys these days lol). A new set of lifters is around 100 bucks , so that's where im at now .

 

Just to follow up i got the new lifters and installed one bank and about 20 seconds of the drill had nice oil up to all the rockers. will torque down and do the other side tonight .Bottom line here is if the new lifters are readily available just buy them and don't mess with the gummed up old ones .

 

Well here's some good news! And a lesson to be learned... Don't cheap out on the lifters!
This reminds of dissembling/cleaning/reassembling lifters in high school engine shop. For extra credit I drew an exploded picture of the lifter. I was also working in shops during the mid seventies when lifter failure was common. No body ever disassembled/cleaned/reassembled/reinstalled hydraulic valve lifters.

 

^^^agree 100 per cent is

 

Glad it worked!

Yes in the shops and dealerships where I worked we only replaced lifters with the best quality available.

On a budget build in HS or shortly thereafter a disassembly and cleaning of the lifters on an engine that had been sitting worked very well. It was probably a factor of their good condition from the start.

 

I got it fired up tonight and ran it for a good 10 minutes before it started getting hot so i shut it down (still need a fan)The motor sounded good and ran well . Over the next week or so ill get a fan on it and fine tune the carb and timing.Then the real test will be to see where my compression is at after the ball honing and new rings i put in it .Based on how its running initially i think its going to be pretty good.Stay tuned!

 

Snap a video of it running for us! I love the inspiration

 

Well its running good.Got the timing set at 10 btdc, dwell is at 30 have 21 inches of vacuum . stays cool at 195 ,42 lbs of oil pressure at 1000 rpms. Now the bad,i have about 115 pounds of compression on all cylinders except number 1 it has 60lbs. i was pretty excited til i hooked up the compression tester. At some point ill look into where im losing the compression .Could be through one of the valves for that cylinder i used all the original valves and just lapped them in. And i guess i said i wanted something to tinker with well here it is

 

[quote=liquify33;1551528]Snap a video of it running for us! I love the inspiration[/quote cant quite figure it out

 

[quote=deadeyejedi;1553784]

 

[QUOTE=deadeyejedi;1553896]i give up ^^^

 

So i started tracking down my latest issue and it appears my dingleball hone job on cylinder 1 wasn't good enough or there is a ring problem . Is it possible that one cylinders rings haven't seated yet? (wishful thinking). I did a compression test on cylinder #1 with only that plug removed and got 88lbs and after adding oil i ended up with 120 . Still contemplating my next step.

 

My next step would be to put compressed air into the cylinder and see where it escapes. You'll very likely hear it escape from the crankcase due to the variation between the wet/dry readings; but, you want to know if either of the valves leak. If a valve leaks pull the rocker arms on that cylinder and re-test. If a valve leaks try rotating it and re-testing. The info gained by testing helps with what to look for once it is apart.

About the rings not seated it's possible let's see what others say.

 

I put about 90 lbs of shop air to the cylinder while it was at tdc and the air is coming out both valve covers, oil fill tube,dont hear anything at the exhaust and a little comes out the carb .hmm issue with both? who knows i won't panic about it . i just changed out the break in oil and ill run it a few more times and check things again just to see if it actually improved.

 

Isn't this the stock peanut cam? It is a bit low all around. I got 140 to 142 on a stock 76 350 with the Performer cam advanced two degrees, less than 8 to 1. I had 150 psi on the same short block with #6 heads that equaled 9 to 1 with a 214/214 custom from Cutlassefi degreed within 1/2 a degree of the cam card. I don't think the rings aren't fully seated yet but there could be some intake valve leakage on that cylinder.

 

yes it’s the stock cam on a 70 2bbl engine . I really need to put it under load to do a proper ring seating . We’ll see how it goes after a few cycles .

 

Any update on this build? Definitely inspirational... I have a 68' 350 with #5 heads that was running last year and my sons left the hood open and it got all rusty from the rain and humidity and I am hoping a backyard freshen up and dingleberry hone job will get it back running again. Dang motor sounded great and had good throttle response and everything! So bummed out... But we're back on it now, just trying to figure out the best bang for the buck freshen up will be... Thanks

 

More than likely with rust in the cylinders, it is overbore time. There is a couple of hone to 4.065" oversize pistons available but your cylinder walls have to be really nice. I did have a shim head gasket rot out and spew nasty coolant into one cylinder in 76 Olds 350. I only caught because I was swapping on 307 heads for a truck. I cleaned it up with emery cloth. It ran fine, fairly even compression and used a reasonable amount of oil.

 

No updates i kinda gave up on it and moved on to other stuff .The motor sounds and runs good and the compression got a little better after some more heat cycles. It was a fun project to undertake to see how i would do with it and i wouldn't hesitate to drop it in a driver and pound on it a bit .Bottom line is if you need a motor to last you just have to do it right from the beginning. i didn't have any plans for this motor and didn't put much money in it so for me it was actually a success.Good luck with your project