I thought I posted this yesterday, but must not have pressed 'Submit'.
My 3800 has a 1954 235 in it. Stock as far as I can tell. The valve cover has the four vents in it, and the valve gear is filthy. I also noticed that some of the valve spring retainers are dry (rusty) even after running the engine for more than an hour. It appears to be only the center four, but there are pictures in my Webshots album.
Dirty valve Gear Page 5, the first two pictures in the last row.
I've been assuming that the oil gets to the valve gear like an SBC and squirts out the end of the pushrods. Is that correct?
Any ideas what would make those cylinders go dry? The truck sat for a long time, but started right up.
