No oil to the rockers!!

[martx-5]

After my maiden voyage with the TR3 restoration a couple of weeks ago, I decided to re-torque the cylinder head. When I took the valve cover off, the rockers were pretty dry. There was some oil laying around, but the tops of the rockers where the holes are showed no idication of any oil coming out.

I removed the rocker shaft (have to do that to re-torque the head), removed the spark plugs and cranked the engine for almost 30 seconds...NO OIL from the hole in the head. :frown:

I then removed the screw in the back of the head. Had to cut down a 9/16" socket to get in there clamped by a pair of vise grips. Cranked the engine again, and after about 8-10 seconds, the oil started to pour out pretty good from the hole vacated by removal of the screw.

Happy days, at least I don't have to remove the head. I should be able to clean the passageway in there without to much fanfare...but that job is for tommorow, I'm just going to have a Hoegaarden for now and relax.

I certainly didn't want to go to the external oiler.

 

[tdskip]

What screw was blocking the flow Art?

 

[Brosky]

Tom,

It was probably some sludge of sorts blocking it, from what Art is saying. Unless I'm misreading this.

 

[tdskip]

With you Paul, almost sounded like the screw was blocking the flow which would have been seriously wrong. Not that sludge isn't seriously wrong, but you get the idea...

 

[martx-5]

The screw in the head was not blocking anything. The oil comes from the rear cam bearing, up the block, into the head and then into the rocker arm. The screw that I took out is in the back of the head that is where the head is cross drilled. That is where the plug-up is, in that passageway. By taking the screw out of the head, the oil had someplace to go...out the back of the head. This meant that I had oil up into the head which is good news, as now I only have to clean out the short section of oil passage that is in the head.

If I didn't have oil when I took that screw out, that would mean that the passageway in the block was plugged up, and I'd have to, at least pull the head off.

It should be fixed by tommorow.

 

[Brosky]

That's good news!!

 

[Got_All_4]

Take the sparking plugs out and with the rockers off the head and turn the motor until you get oil pressure. Look at the top of the head and see if oil is coming out of the feed hole. If so then clean out the rear pedestal and the rocker shaft. Also make sure the port hole in the pedestal and matches up with port hole in the shaft. Reinstall and run again with out the plugs and watch for oil coming out of the rockers.

If so great. If not there can be another problem where the rear cam bearing could be partly blocking the port hole and not letting full pressure to the rockers. Hopefully you won't have to go there.

 

[martx-5]

The plug-up was definitely in the passage in the head. Blew out a bunch of junk, rinsed it out good and got oil now coming up through the head. It looked like some glass bead stuff got stuck in the muck of the passageway when the head was rebuilt. I should've taken that plug out and checked it before assembly, but sometimes some things like that just get overlooked.

I checked the rocker shaft assembly to make sure that was OK, and it got a clean bill of health. Bolted the rockers back on, stuffed in the plugs, and fired it up. Within about 8-10 seconds we had oil peeing out of all of the rocker shaft holes. It wasn't a torrent, but if I revved it up, the oil would fling around pretty good.

Time to take it for a spin!

 

[tdskip]

Sorry to be slow about following up, but this is great news Art. Whoo hoo!

What did you use to blow it out?

 

[martx-5]

Air pressure. I have a compressor. I stuffed a short piece of rubber hose on my blow gun. I made sure I covered the "safety holes" so I would get full pressure! :laugh:

 

[Brosky]

Great news Art. Sorry that I missed this earlier.