440 oiling issue

[mattsmopars]

A friend of mine has been building a 68 440 for his roadchicken. It a basic 440 rebuild. Block has been hot tanked and cleaned ,bored ,honed,line honed. New Trw forged pistons, stock forged crank and ly rods. Cam is a comp package with cam lifters springs and so on. Short block was put together at the machine shop all new bearings and seals. Heads are rebuilt 906's. He called me today with a question that i can not answer or understand. He has the long block together, and was priming the oil pump with a drill. He says that the right side oil comes all the way to the top of the head, but not on the left? Oil will pour out the top of the head on the right side where the valve cover goes, but the left side will not pump oil to the top like the other side? He says that he can see oil all around the cam and up to the lifters on both sides , but just seems to be a problem on the left side. So if anyone can shine some light on this please do. I not know enuff about the oiling of a big block to know if this is a problem or not. Please let me knoew what i should tell him to do . Thanks in advance!
Matt

 

[moper]

The oil system only oils the rockers when the passage in the cam lines up with the passages in the block. He has to turn the shortblock over witha breaker bar while he preoils, and it should be fine. Dont go too crazy either... every time the engine is turned, it removes some cam breakin lube/paste.

 

[ramcharger]

moper is again, 100% correct.

 

[Longgone]

What moper said. You can install a mechanical oil pressure gauge and while priming the pump watch the gauge while you turn the crankshaft. The pressure will drop momentarily when you find the oil hole that corresponds to each side of the engine/rocker.