So what is the casting date for the block and the head? Anything stamped on the distributor pad? The reason I ask is that in 55, GM was still making two different 235 blocks. One block for stick motors and one for automatic motors. The stick blocks could not be fit with hydraulic lifters because the galley needed to supply those lifters was not drilled. In other words, no retro fitting hydraulic lifters to those blocks. The blocks made for automatic equipped cars came fitted with hydraulic lifters so was drilled for that use. You can use hydraulic lifters or you can retro fit solids. It would not be totally unheard of to find a 55 pass car engine in a truck. Probably pretty common. This distinction ended in 56 when all car blocks were drilled for hydraulics. I am not sure whether that was the case with all truck blocks. So identification of your block and head would be good information to have as to what year you actually have.
What year distributor? If you don't know, just pull the cap off and get the part number and the date code and we can see if there is an incompatibility issue. I would be surprised but you never know. If the block is in fact a late 55 through 62 235 block, the distributor for those motors is one ending in 2403. There may be some variation if it is a truck motor but I would have to pull my delco remy stuff and double check.
Before you pull the motor and take it apart, you might tinker a bit. Jerry recommended that you spin the oil pump. The way that I do it, which does not mean its the only way, is to get a spare 2403 distributor. Grind off the head in the gear pin, knock the pin through and remove the gear. Then gut the rest of the distributor until you have just the shaft and the cast iron housing. Now you have an oil pump tester and engine pre-oiler. I have heard recommendations to use a screw driver and all other manner, just not for me. Manually bring your motor up to TDC for No. 1 cylinder. Take off the cap and put a chalk line on the body of the distributor where the rotor is pointing. Remove the distributor. Remove the side cover. If there is a steel line remove it. Install your new fangled tool making sure the tang on the shaft fits into the slot in the oil pump. Chuck the top of the shaft into a drill and spin. If the oil pump is working properly you should start to hear the drill labor a bit and you should see oil coming out of the threaded boss at the back of the lifter galley, rear cam bearing boss. If no oil is coming out then that is a problem. If its a later block, 59-63, there will be no oil line as those blocks directly feed the rockers through a drilled galley in the block and head. So you should see oil from the rockers (remove your copper line and plug the head).
I would probably pull a lifter and spin the oil pump just to see if any oil flow in the lifter bore. If not, it all points to having to pull the motor and really investigate the problem.
BTW, the drilled bolt that you hear so much about is actually a bolt and a plug. So if you had a 55-58 block, and the head went bad, and the service replacement was a 59 and up 848 (for the record, the 848 casting number started production for the 56 model year, I have an 848 head cast in late 55 for the 56 production model) and you were going to use the 55-58 rocker set up on the 59 and up head you had to use the drilled bolt and plug. I have an nos bolt and plug if anyone wants to see one. What is the difference you say, well there is a drilled orifice in the head for the rocker feed. In 59 Gm increased the size of this orifice in addition to changing how the rockers are fed. GM also altered the rocker connector by pinching off the copper tube, and modified the rockers. a 55-58 rocker has a groove on the inside of the rocker that directly intersects the spit hole in the rocker. The 59 and up rockers the groove is off set. GM was trying to create a sort of high pressure system for 59 and up. So if you use the 59 head on a 55-58 block with 55-58 rockers, you get way too much oil spitting, not dribbling, out of the rockers. The drilled bolt and plug corrected that problem and supplied the correct amount of oil to the 55-58 rockers.
Last edited by Dragsix; 03/02/2018 8:17 PM.
