sbc rocker arm not oiling?
 

I have a ZZ4 with about 20,000 miles on it. the motor has set for about 4 years. I'm getting ready to install it and fire it up. While still on the engine stand I thought I would prime the oiling system. #5 exhaust rocker is not oiling. So I pulled the rocker arm and push rod to blow air through. The rocker was clears and the pushrod had some oil in it but it still does not oil. I'm using a primer shaft with a 800 rpm drill. The guage shows 50 psi. Could it be a lifter fouled and if so will it pump better with the engine running? Or do I dig further?:confused:

Cycle the oil, rotate the crank. Cycle the oil, rotate the crank.

sbc rocker arm not oiling
 

I have been running the drill for about 30 minutes now while rotating the crank by hand. Still no oil from #5 exhaust. I cannot decide if I should pull the intake to get to the lifter or install the motor and start it up?:confused: I'm going to see if I have an old distributer to make an primer out of.:spank:

I'd pull the lifter now, so much easier. Remove the plunger and disassemble it. Different brands do approach the oil flow to the push rod differently, but common is below the push rod cup will be a disc with one to several holes in it. On the back side of the cup will be a very small raised diameter boss that has an opening( or should be) on one side, this stuff is very small and not easy to see, bright light and magnifying glass is most helpful. When assembled the disk sits on the small raised boss with a groove these two elements should meter the amount of oil passing out of the lifter body through the hole in the pushrod cup on into the pushrod. Rotating the engine can sometimes be helpful mostly to insure the plunger fills with oil but should not be necessary. Once the plunger fills with pressure oil it should flow to the push rod. If the plunger didn't fill, you're dealing with a different problem. The plunger is nothing more than a reservoir that feeds through a check valve the lash space below the plunger and the push rod in the other direcction. If the reservoir is not filling the lifter will not function. There is a metering hole in the outer body and one or more in the plunger, the outer needs to flow into the plunger it really doesn't matter how much as long as there is enough to match that which goes into the push rod sufficient to hold engine oil pressure within the reservoir. When the lifter goes over the heal of the cam if there is any lash it is engine oil pressure that will open the check valve to fill the gap under the plunger to take up any lash. As soon as the lifter starts to climb the lobe and valve spring pressure pushing on the plunger exceeeds engine oil pressure the chack valve will close and the lifter will be hydraulically locked at that lash setting till the next cycle on the heal of the cam happens.





Bogie

Info on dis- and re-assembling a hydraulic lifter can be seen here.

But if the engine has not yet been started for the first time, I would recommend you replace the entire lifter and be done w/it.

The bad lifter can be made into a solid lifter and used for checking the valve train geometry, so it won't be a total loss.

If you are not sealing off the lower oil gallery, like you would with a distributer in the hole, you might not be feeding oil to one side of the motor.

sbc rocker arm not oiling
 

I'm going to install the distributer and starter to give it a spin on the stand. Than when that does not work I will pull the intake and clean the lifters. Wish me luck. Thanks.:spank: