No oil to my rockers AARGH! HELP!

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halfhemi

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Ive put a new 318 in my Duster and while priming the oil pump I get nearly 70 lbs of pressure to my mechanical gauge. I visibly see oil travel up the tube to the gauge, but I get no oil to my rockers. I've ran my drill for over 2.5 minutes while hand cranking the engine around and still nothing.
Any ideas??
 
Are you sure the rocker shafts are installed correctly. Easy to put them on where the holes for oiling don't line up.
 
You really need a high rpm drill to get it done. I did the exact same thing with a crappy drill. Called a engine builder.... he told me not to burn the drill up (it was smoking) and go ahead and crank the motor. The main bearing and cam bearing more than likely are lubed and ready to go but it just takes some rpms to get the oil up in the shafts. I fired it up and oil was there in no time. You'll be alright as long as you felt the drill bog down whey you started priming and them primed as much as you did. Fire it up!

Note: make sure you oil your rockers, valve stems, shafts before you fire it up ... that's what I did.
 
rocker shafts may be installed wrong and blocking the oil feed holes.
common mistake. Check a manual for details.
 
Demon416 said:
Are you sure the rocker shafts are installed correctly. Easy to put them on where the holes for oiling don't line up.
Click to expand...

I agree with what deamon said. I used an air ratchet to do mine and had no problem getting oil up there. Those rocker shafts are real easy to put in wrong they only can work one way.
 
I just took the rockers off to verify the position. Yes, the oil holes are pointed down and yes, the holes are lining up with the oil grooves in the rocker cups. I guess the drill I have is not fast enough,.
 
fishman said:
I agree with what deamon said. I used an air ratchet to do mine and had no problem getting oil up there. Those rocker shafts are real easy to put in wrong they only can work one way.
Click to expand...

Ma Mopar should have the shafts stamped Left or Right ... This side Up.. LOL
 
so if you have a fast enough drill theres no need to rotate the motor???
 
They do have marks for LT and RT. If you put them on opposite they don't line up with the valve tips well.
 
Correction, it appears as if the pushrod cup is off the mark if the rockers are backwards or in opposite location..
 
you have to rotate engine by hand while turning drill to get oil to rockers..

the hole in the cam and cam bearing only line up at certain intervals...

so unless the two holes are lined up ...no oil...

it does not mean anything is wrong.
 
your shafts have notches in them...

the notches need to point down and towards YOUR left while installing them...

that will put the oil holes down and towards the exhaust....

so passender side the notches point toward firewall....driver side the notches point toward front of car...
 
I just verified the shafts are in the proper way. I tried turning the engine by hand while running the pump. I just finished running the drill while my rocker shaft was removed--still no oil. I'm going to just fire it up tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks guys!
 
When I prelubed the motor I just finished I rotated the motor over buy hand. When the oilpassages lined up the oil guage would drop and you would see oil start coming out on one side. then rotate the engine over till it started comming out onthe other side
 
It is really hard to get the oil holes aligned by rotating the engine by hand. I couldn't ever get oil out of mine when I tried with a drill and I had one big honkin drill. It was fine when I started it and I bet yours will be also.
 
I tried priming my engine last week with a cordless drill with no results.. went and got a corded drill, cheap but 3.8 amp i think and 1800 or 2800 rpm, i forget... anyway, it got the oil flowing in seconds!
 
Were cam bearings put in this engine? I've found I have to taper teh hole in the bearing to get 100% flow up to the heads, otherwise 1/2 of the hole can be obscurred when the hole up from the mains is aligned perfectly. You should be able to spin a set of vice grips on that priming shaft and get oil pressure enough to see it. If you have no oil pressure or oil visible whiel turning the crank, and the oil priming shaft, do not install the engine or try to fire it. Putting it in and firing it is a waste. You have a problem. Remeber, you get oil pressure when turning it with the starter, and the oil pump drive is turning 1/2 of tha crank's speed of about 70rpm.
 
moper is on the right track here. i've used a low speed cordless drill to prime one. your pump is a positive displacement pump, if you get oil to the pump it has to go somewhere. check your cam bushings for hole alignment.if the hole aint there on the bore for the rocker shaft you will never get it to oil.and check the pipe thread tapped holes on the end of each lifter oil passage. if the plugs arent there it will totaly bupass the rocker bore and dump the oil onto the top of the timing chain and ontop of the distributor drive. i did amotor once and didn't put the plugs in and my lifters never pumped up and i never got oil up to the rocker shafts.if you look down into the distributor hole while cranking the pump, and the plug aint there you will see the oil flowing out toward the rear of the motor. the front one you cant see without taking the timing cover off. good luck dude.
 
The cam oil holes have to line up with the hole in the cam bearings to get oil to the shafts, as was stated earlier. Fire it up, it should be fine.
 
bobscuda67 and 70aarcuda are right. The rocker shafts are only pressurized when the hole in the #2 and #4 cam journals line up with the hole in the cam as it rotates. If you are worried about a dry start up. Have a buddy turn the motor by hand (slowly) while you run the oil pump with the drill.

good luck !
 
here is another thing i have been doing lately...

i remove one of the rocker shaft bolts...and will an oil can...squirt oil into the shaft and actually fill the shaft up with oil....also..i squirt oil from the oil can down into the oil passage that goes down to the cam journal...

sort of helping things out....
 
Using a Magnum head gasket instead of an LA gasket will block the oil hole to the head. You probably didn't do this but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case.
 
I don't have to do this anymore because I marked (indexed) the balancer. When priming the pump I would turn the crank 2 degrees at a time and prime. Took a few turns but when I would get pressure on one bank, I would stop and mark the balancer (index with timing mark) and continue untill I had pressure on other bank, stop and index. Anytime I change cams or have it down I just rotate and align the index mark and repeat for other side to varify pressure to top end. Takes a few minuters to do it but once indexed it is really easy and quick. Just thought I would throw that out there. It works for me. Good luck.

Terry
 
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