Oil consumption discovery

[beanhead]

Aaaaahhhhhhh….. race parts.

Not always the right choice to mix n match with your non-race parts.

While you guys are digging around thru all your hoarded parts……… see if you can scrounge up some spacer rings to go with those stock shafts.

Well crap....I've got 7 Dwayne.
Who knows what happened to #8...probably used it to open a beer bottle or something else stupid and it rolled under one of the work benches haa..
I see where those are missing from Carl/Ckessel's setup.

 

[Kern Dog]

I had 7.
One broke in 2006 and allowed 4 lifters to shoot out of their bores. Lucky for me I had a cam swap planned so stuffing the lifters back in mystery holes wasn’t an issue.
I’m not superstitious but sometimes things happen that test your faith.
My second 440 came from a 1976 Coronet police car. That engine was rebuilt in 2003.
I went with the MP 284/484 cam which was a poor choice. The #4 rod broke in the middle at 846 miles. That split a cylinder and damaged a new Edelbrock head. I built the engine I have now but recycled some parts from the broken engine. One rocker shaft from that engine broke. The flex plate cracked a couple ears too. The cam sprocket got wobbly when the threads in the cam bolt darned near stripped.
1976 was long before any “defund the police” garbage so I don’t know what the heck happened.
Maybe I should have inspected the engine closer during assembly?

 

[Cranky]

That’s a little known weight saving trick.

The plot thickens. After cleaning off the rh head, I backed the hold down hardware off and rotated the shaft. NO CHANGE! From my research, having the 15* offset is correct. These shafts along, with the double holes, there is no offset. I don't see anything ugly up on the head, like metal confetti, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Oil pressure is fine at hot idle and cruising down the road. Since I'm not flush with scratch right now I'm thinking of using the TIG and capping off one side of holes per shaft.

If the ends are leaking.....weld them up. The welch plugs are supposed to do that but sometimes they don't....

 

[ckessel]

When I do the swap out, I'll measure the thickness of the walls. I was thinking they are for a/m arms too. Greg, have any spacers too? I see what you guys are talking about. Thanks for the heads up. Not as versed in b's as I am in a's.

 

[RemCharger]

When I do the swap out, I'll measure the thickness of the walls. I was thinking they are for a/m arms too. Greg, have any spacers too? I see what you guys are talking about. Thanks for the heads up. Not as versed in b's as I am in a's.

Had to go back and check, but yeah the HS rockershafts are drilled both sides

 

[Kern Dog]

I’ll admit, I am not as familiar with the big blocks as I am with the LA series either.
I have aluminum rocker arms in the red car. Jigsaw has a 383 but I don’t remember if I put spacers in between the rocker arms.
You have hundreds of not thousands of miles in that engine without the spacers. I’m guessing that being without them, the pushrods could rub the head casting, the rocker arm tips could be off center creating increased valve guide wear, who knows?

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Small blocks don't use spacers....

 

[Don Frelier]

Let me guess...
New valve cover gaskets on that one?

 

[ckessel]

Thank you all for the wisdom and help. Much appreciated.

 

[Moparfever65]

Valve covers made in California before environmental regs pushed all the foundries out of state.

 

[ckessel]

Yesterday I received a pair of used shafts from Greg. Much appreciated! After I got the air cleaner lid for the 65 welded and filed, I cleaned up the shafts. Today I swapped them out. Once done I went for a short drive. It seems quieter while running and the oil pressure come up some too. Most likely due to not have 16 extra oil leaks on the shafts. The welding rod trick worked that was mentioned earlier worked awesome for holding the push rods in place. Once I got home, I took the PCV/Oil fill cap off to look at the baffle when running. Nice and dry like its supposed to be.

 

[oldkimmer]

I'll bet the flipped shafts didn't make a bit of difference ! Ok, the spacers are missing, but the rockers seem to have stayed over the valve tips. There is plenty of pushrod clearance in the heads - so no damage there. And as far as oiling goes, it still would have splashed and dripped plenty in the rocker to lube the rocker pivot. Keep in mind these are stamped rockers with a ton of clearance in the bottom of them so pointing them up wouldn't have any impact on pressure. Likely the main reason the engineers pointed them down was so it didn't squirt out the filler or breather !! Flip 'em over, install the spacers and forget about it. And now you have a story to tell your grandkids.

So tell me how the shaft gets oil with no hole in the top of the shaft? Inquiring minds want to know. Kim

 

[gkent]

"So tell me how the shaft gets oil with no hole in the top of the shaft? Inquiring minds want to know. Kim"

The shafts are fed oil up the sides of the second to last bolt. The bolt holes in the shafts are all the same size top and bottom and are larger than the bolt diameter. So whether you install the shafts correctly or not, they will still get oil.