Guys,
This is my first post in a long time. Recently my 1950 Chev 1/2 ton pickup (Not a daily driver, but run often) was off the road for a couple of months for brake work. On restarting, stuck intake valves which wouldn't free up with solvent. Pulled the head and cleaned the guides with a .45 barrel brush. Reassembled and it ran fine- compression 120-123 PSI, vacuum 19.5" but-- No oil flow to rockers.
Checked the oil line for blockage and found that it was totally free flowing. Now for the questions- this line goes to the oil distributor behind the exhaust pipe. Air into this line would flow across the valve plate (Under the distributor cover plate) and into the port leading to the con rod splash manifold. If no oil to the rocker line does this mean no oil to the rod troughs?
I'm really open to suggestions, but here is what I'm going to try:
Ignition distributor off and drive the oil pump with electric drill. 1000 pump RPM should give me 14 PSI on a warm engine. Will pump for a while at higher RPM and see if any oil to the rockers. If Not-
Pull sideplate and check for broken or leaking line in pushrod area. If Not the next step is to pull the oil dist. valve plate and look for what (?)- If oil pressure valve stuck closed this should be the problem, but I've never heard of this happening.
I have no clue as to the oil gallery layout in this engine. There is the oil filter drainback fitting just in front of and below the dist.cover plate, the rocker arm oil line fitting coming out of the casting and going up into the water jacket and, a little further back, a Tee fitting to the filter and the oil pressure gauge. Oil is flowing to the filter (line gets hot) and pressure gauge indicates (seems a little lower since head work).
The engine is clean inside- no sludge and has fresh 30 weight oil. Fresh gas too, since I suspect alcohol spiked fuel.
Anybody run into this problem before?
Bill Stewart
