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rocker oil pressure or not enough?

Jerry

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I was helping a friend get a 1971 MGB running. They bought the car a while ago but have not tried to drive it yet because of a warning by one of our club members that the valve train sounded loud. The engine was rebuilt according to the guy that sold it. I pulled off the valve cover and can barely see the oil coming out of the rockers. IE: the back pedestal has oil slowing dripping out of the nut on top. Each of the others has much less oil and the push rods for the front pedestal had no oil on them. Oil pressure according to the gauge is 50lbs at idle. Sounds high to me but I usually work on Triumphs and Austin Healeys. I know the oil feed is from the rear pedestal but is there any way they turned the rockers bushes so the oil hole is pluged?

Any other ideas? (plenty of oil in the car)
I can tell that someone spent a lot of money on this car. Lots of little extras everywhere and the engine is pristine.
Thanks

Jerry
 
50 lbs of oil pressure at idle is good! The 1800 engines were never at the top of the list for rocker arm oil pressure. Just make sure the oil galleys are clear, in the block, rocker shaft and bushings. Sometimes engines are "rebuilt"???, and little attention is given to the oil galleys which can get crudded up over a period of time, especially if the oil wasn't changed at the proper intervals and the detergents have deteriorated to non existence.. PJ
 
Throw some Marvel Mystery Oil in with the
Just a quart will do, run it for a while.
Then do a oil change, maybe that will clean
out the oil galley's, stuff works,
always keep some around for old car startups.
 
There will not be a puddle of oil in there, should just be more so of a light to moderate coating. As long as the rocker shaft is lubricated and there's a little bit in between the rocker arm and the valve, you should be good.

It's not like a Jag engine where the cams are literally bathing in oil.
 
That makes me more comfortable. I think we will add some lower weight oil like Marvel to make sure all the oil holes are open. This has not been run in almost a year now. It did start right up and ran for about 5 min before we had to shut it down due to the switch melting.

thanks

Jerry
 
I'd pull the rocker shaft assembly, crank it and see what comes out the oil port, and I'd use either a bunch of pipe cleaners to probe (and clean) or a small wire brush like is used for cleaning valve guides.
Then I'd slide all the rockers over, check the ports and check for adverse wear.
But, then, that's just what I'd do.
 
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