Went to adjust the rockers today....low and behold no oil is getting to the rockers!

There's plenty of oil in the pan and the oil pressure gauge indicates 50 psi.

Any points on why this is and what to do to correct it are highly appreciated.

How long did you have it running? It takes some time to fill the pushrods. What year engine block do you have? The 65-66 models used a grooved rear cam bearing and a grooved camshaft journal in the rear.And without the groove you get no oil. Are there any signs that any oil has reached the top of the motor?

We ran it for about 15 minutes to break in the cam. I've ran it off and on various times at short intervals. Would it be safe to just go ahead and douse the rockers with some oil and run it until oil comes out of the push rods?

The engine is a 1970 block. It's hard for me to tell if any oil is in the lifter galley.

We ran it for about 15 minutes to break in the cam. I've ran it off and on various times at short intervals. Would it be safe to just go ahead and douse the rockers with some oil and run it until oil comes out of the push rods?

The engine is a 1970 block. It's hard for me to tell if any oil is in the lifter galley.

No, splash oil went the way of the model A.

I see its a 70 block so it's not the curse of the early block. I guess you skipped the prime the motor until oil comes out of the push rods part.

So, rats take forever to oil, they trap air in the lifter oil passages. That's why they make a plug for the front with a tiny hole drilled in it to let the air out and oil.

When you pulled the covers off to adjust the valves did you see any oil laying on top of the head ? If so I would oil the rocker pivot and the top of the pushrod thru the oil hole and crank the engine and watch. If you have no sign of any oil making it to the rockers after this much run time,I would not crank it until I found out why. Did you install any type of oil restrictors?

has the distributor in this engine been used before? and is it in correctly? the reason i ask this is i had a cousin that had the same problem and found the distributor to be bad.

No I did not install any type of oil restrictors.

The distributor is brand new. What would be bad on it that would cause no oil to get to the top of the engine?

Where is this hole at you're talking about that you can let the air bleed out?

It is possible the oil plugs are missing in the front of the block even with the oil pressure you have as you are measuring it at the filter in a rat.
You can get 50lbs with a drill even with the distributor housing missing which causes a massive oil "leak"

GM put a hole in the front two oil plugs because there was a tendency for the last two lifters to get oil to "air lock". These would be the two very front lifters only.
Hardly anyone uses the holes any more as it was found to be unnecessary & no they were not put there to oil the timing chain.
This will not cause all the rockers to have a problem.
There is nothing in a distributor that would cause this unless half the housing was missing :D
It sounds like the oil has just not gotten to the rockers yet which seems about impossible given the length of time it was running,
Are you getting lifter noise? If not & this is a hyd. they have to be oiling & they will oil even with the plugs in the front not there.

What kind of rockers & pushrods are these?
Only ones I have had problems with are the cheap roller tip ones & I won't use them on anything I build but that's just me.
There are combinations of pushrod/rockers that will tend to shut the oil hole off if you mix them but I have no brand names to give you except the only time I have seen a problem is with "bargain" stuff, especially Comp Magnums & someone else's pushrods,,
I have seen this a couple of times on the dyno where the damn ball was black it got so hot from lack of oil & on one engine all we did was stick a stock rocker in place of the roller tip one to see what would happen & it ran fine for the duration of the tests???
What I would do before anything else is loosen the rocker adjustment & prime the crap out of the engine with the proper tool to see if you can get oil to any of the rockers.
If you get it to oil the problem is most likely something to do with the rockers & or pushrods. If not I would be checking the front oil plugs to see if they are installed,,,

I used Elgin steel one piece push rods and Summit stamped 1.7 rockers.

I know about the big hole between the lifter valley and the area where the timing chain is. I don't even know where the plugs would be.

So far the only noise I know it's making is the rockers are chattering because they're not snugged. They're not snugged because if you do snug them then the engine seems to want to run on after shut down. The guy that helped me build this engine says it's because the rockers aren't getting oil but even he's stumped as to why there's no oil coming up.

BTW yes it is a hydraulic flat tappet camshaft.

I used Elgin steel one piece push rods and Summit stamped 1.7 rockers.

I know about the big hole between the lifter valley and the area where the timing chain is. I don't even know where the plugs would be.

So far the only noise I know it's making is the rockers are chattering because they're not snugged. They're not snugged because if you do snug them then the engine seems to want to run on after shut down. The guy that helped me build this engine says it's because the rockers aren't getting oil but even he's stumped as to why there's no oil coming up.

BTW yes it is a hydraulic flat tappet camshaft.
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There are two oil galley plugs behind the timing gear that close the front of the lifter galleys. They are 1/4" pipe
If they are not in the oil will never make it to the top but you can still show pretty decent pressure as the lifters slow the oil "leak" down.
It should be low at an idle but will still have pressure.
This is the first place I would look but you need to pull the front cover :(

"GM put a hole in the front two oil plugs because there was a tendency for the last two lifters to get oil to "air lock". These would be the two very front lifters only.
Hardly anyone uses the holes any more as it was found to be unnecessary & no they were not put there to oil the timing chain.
This will not cause all the rockers to have a problem."

Well, they still make them and I use them, I guess I fall into the group "hardly anyone uses the holes any more", must be an old school thing. Then again I've never built a rat that did not oil, old school also I guess.

"GM put a hole in the front two oil plugs because there was a tendency for the last two lifters to get oil to "air lock". These would be the two very front lifters only.
Hardly anyone uses the holes any more as it was found to be unnecessary & no they were not put there to oil the timing chain.
This will not cause all the rockers to have a problem."

Well, they still make them and I use them, I guess I fall into the group "hardly anyone uses the holes any more", must an old school thing. Then again I've never built a rat that did not oil, old school also I guess.
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I highly doubt you are any more "old school" than we are as I been doin this stuff for over 40 years but I do tend to change how I do things as I learn,,, which it seems I are still doin. :D

Never said there was anything wrong with using the drilled plugs just that they are not necessary & it would not cause all the rockers to not receive oil which seems to be the problem here.

The point was not having the holes would not cause the problem he is having, not weather to use the drilled plugs or not.

Are you sure this is a 70 block,if you have not checked the casting #'s,or owned this car since new, I would check the numbers. Do you have the original cam from this motor before the rebuild? Your other problem with the valve adjustment causing the engine to run on would seem to have to be connected.

HOW could valve adjustment cause engine run-on? I cannot think of any possible mechanism where valve adjustment would affect run-on.

Yes it is a 1970 block. The suffix code stamped on the block is CTW. That comes up as a 1970 396 350 hp hi perf mated to a TH400 and found in either a Camaro, Chevelle or a Nova. The vin of the original car the engine came out of is also stamped on there...begins with the number 10 which indicates 1= Chevrolet, 0= 1970.

How does valve adjustment have to do with engine run-on? I don't know....I'm just going off by what I'm told. All I know is if you try to tighten down the rockers (just enough to get them to stop chattering) the engine likes to diesel after shut down, but otherwise loosen the rockers and all is good.

We've decided we're going to pull the engine next week and investigate.

a wise decision. it'll be cheaper to fix now than later. :)

Well today we pulled the engine. We tried priming the engine via a drill but still no oil is getting to the rockers. There is 50 psi when the drill is activated so that's telling is the oil pump is working.

So we dropped the oil pan. All seems ok. We check the rear oil gallie plugs...they're in place. We then pull the timing cover...the oil gally plugs are there too.

Then we look up inside the block...the cam is dripping with oil as well as the rods and pistons.

Then we look thru the lifter gally...doesn't seem like there's any oil getting thru there. Also there's no oil on the timing chain either. I pull one of the pushrods and it has no crap in it blocking it up.

So it seems the cam and everything below is getting oil but the timing chain pushrods and rockers are not getting any oil.

Now we're wondering if the lifters are the culprit or ??

BTW it is a 1970 block, suffix code CTW.

i pulled the heads off my 327 and i tried to prime the motor with a drill but my drill was getting hot so i quit when i saw pressure on the gauge. i have run the motor for appoximately 6 minutes and the rockers are just now getting oil. it took much longer than i expected to get oil up top. i'm not an engine expert but that is my experience.

We pulled the intake today as well as one of the lifters and tried it again. We still have no oil coming thru the oil gallys in the lifter bores.