i just replaced the pushrods im my 68 396 and was adjusting them the messy way, when all of a sudden, i noticed it wasn't messy! i looked on the other side and oil was shooting all over the place, but on the passengers side, none of the rocker arms are spraying oil. a little bit of oil comes out, but not very much. what the heck is wrong?

You could have a blocked oil passage, or a really worn distributor housing. Does anyone know how the oil flows on a big block to the pass side head? I think it goes around the distributor like a small block but am not sure?

I think it goes by the distributor on the way to the lifters. I heard recently that a guy didn't have much oil pressure and had the same problem you have. His distributor was not all the way down where it should be. Just a thought.

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-Mark TC# 717
ACES #1641
1967 Chevelle SS396/375 (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/1BadRat2)(20 year old Polaroid pics. Sorry)
1967 RailVelle (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/1badrat3.jpg) Handles like its on rails!
1964 Chevelle 283/195
1975 Corvette 396/375 (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/1BadRat1.jpg) Looks are very deceiving!

You have to do the hard way. pull your intake and check all lifters and lobes. maybe the didnt get any oil?? make sure that the poil plug is there under the camshaft cover. I had trouble with this with my roller lifters, they didnt have any form of grind on their side to get any oil up to the pushrod. Check lifters so theyre not to tight. when i have all lifters out of engine, prelube it and check oilflow...put all together and prelube it, check for flow. Is it a new lifter/camhshaft?

If there isn't oil coming out of any on that side of the engine, then the oil gallery on that side isn't getting oil, or the oil pressure is being dropped due to a leak.

One thing to think about is if the plug that is behind the cam gear is leaking and not allowing that gallery line to hold pressure. If the leak is here, you would never know about it from outside the engine due to the oil just returning to the pan after squirting the back side of the cam gear!!

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Wes. Vann
Technical Reference section
Gold Member #5

I've seen this several times over the years, and every time it has been the same problem. Lifters are collapsed, due to over tightening of rocker arms and Loosen all rockers, run engine with rockers clattering until all are oiling, then re-adjust rockers. 1/4 to 1/2 turn in from zero lash.

Gary sounds right on.

How much do you have to tighten up the rocker to collapse a lifter???

I don't know exactly, but we're talking 1000th's of an inch. The piston in the lifter blocks the oil passage resticting or stopping oil flow. You have to loosen the rockers, let the engine run or run the oil pump with a drill to pump up the lifters. Then re-lash the valves with the engine off. Twist the push rod between your fingers to feel for zero lash, then ad 1/4 to 1/2 turn pre-load.If you over tighten lifters at this point you need to repeat the process to pump up the lifter, because you will have collapsed it again. In high rpm (6500+ rpm) racing applications I run hydraulics at zero lash, no pre-load.
Hope this helps.

i have solid lifters, my bro adjusted them the way some old fart told him about, without a feeler guage. he's a mechanic so i'm confident he did it right, and actually im gettin oil from them now, i guess they were just too tight before cuz i adjusted them for hydraulic lifters. lucky i didn't bend any pushrods... now all i have to do is change the spark plugs that i fouled out and ill be good to go... hey, does anyone know if overtightening can fould out the plugs?