[Hippie]

Primed the oil pump on my kids 318 today, at first I could see some oil flow in the lifter valley but then it stopped. I turned the engine 180 degrees 4 times while turning the oil pump. I pulled the oil pressure sending unit and tried again and as soon as I hit the trigger on my drill I had a geyser and oil everywhere so the pump is primed. I'm used to priming small block Chevies and seeing oil at the rockers, etc. but I'm not seeing oil movement at the rockers on this one. I have the rocker shafts installed correctly provided when the book says left and right they are referencing left and right as seated in the driver's seat. Is this normal or should I be worried? It doesn't seem right to me.

[Centerline]

There's a big difference between the SBC individual rocker arms and Mopar rocker shafts. Mopars generally won't spit oil everywhere because the rocker shafts and rockers don't require that much oil to lubricate properly. Chevys on the other hand will gaul the rockers in a heartbeat if they don't swim in oil.

My experience is with early hemis and big block Mopars but they all have rocker shafts and the oiling systems work pretty much the same. Each rocker shaft has one or two stanchions that have a small oil hole which must align with the oil supply hole in the head when its assembled. That's why there's a right and left side to them. As long as you have them on the correct side they will get oil, providing the oil passages in the heads or block aren't full of gunk.

The rocker shaft itself will fill completely with oil once the engine has started. An old engine builders trick was to fill the shafts with oil and put a little grease in the oil supply hole (on the rocker stanchion) to keep it from draining out. That would give you full rocker shafts at startup. Now days most people just remove the plugs and crank the engine to confirm good oil pressure and then reinstall the plugs for startup. What I do is take some STP and pour it on each rocker and the shaft before installing the valve cover then I don't have to worry if there is a slight delay in getting oil to the rockers.

Good luck.

[Hippie]

Originally Posted by Centerline

What I do is take some STP and pour it on each rocker and the shaft before installing the valve cover then I don't have to worry if there is a slight delay in getting oil to the rockers.

Good luck.

Thanks CL, I coated everything with cam lube and soaked the rockers with oil. I triple checked to make sure I had the shafts aligned properly so I guess I'm good to go. Now he has to get the snow cleaned off it so we can roll it in and get the engine back where it belongs. I love building engines ( even Mopars ) but hooking them back up to a frozen, snow covered truck really sux.