Oil used to pump up through the rockers just fine.
I removed the heads to have the valve guides reworked, did not touch a single lifter. Got the heads back and installed and now I can't get any oil what so ever to come up thru the rockers.
Oil pressure is about 50psi at 2k rpms, I've kept it at 2k rpms for about 5 minutes and still nothing???
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I've about had it with this motor...is a ZZ4 cam and roller lifters with full roller rockers....any ideas?
Thanks

 

Any chance one of the oil galley plugs behind the timing chain might be leaking or popped out? Sounds like a pressure loss somewhere. Not sure what else might cause it.

Scott

 

Damn 2QUIK6, I have the same problem right now. Pulled the heads for guide work, now no oil pumping to the rockers. I don't know the reason why, but it is really strange.
The only difference is I installed my ZZ4 cam and lifters when I reinstalled the heads.

I've already started pulling the oil pan, timing cover, and intake back off. I'm going to install my HV oil pump and then readjust the valves using a priming tool to drive the pump. If I find anything I'll shoot you an e-mail.

 

Thanks Will, let me know what you find, I can't get started tearing anything apart until the weekend again...
I was thinking..how does oil get up in the lifter valley anyway? I don't know of any passages that would lead to the oil pump for oil to be forced into the lifter valley, is it all from the crank counter weights splashing it up and over the cam or is there some passages I never noticed?

 

is it to neither side or just the pass side. If its only the passenger, it could be bc the priming tool does not have a collar at the bottom that simulates the lower portion of the dist.

 

There is an oiling hole in the tip of the rocker that has to, at some point, line up with the hole in the pushrod. Maybe its not lining up and thats why theres no oil coming out, it cant.

 

The passage is in the rear of the block. the oil pressure sensor taps into the same passage. Anyway, it comes into the valley from the back, thru the bore in the middle of the valley (the lifter retainer bolts the the top of this bore housing), then to the lifters.

I'll check that out.....I bought the roller lifter pushrods....At least that's what the parts people said they were???

 

I've got the Manley rods that came with the GM roller rockers. I purchased them all together at Scoggin-Ds, and they worked fine before I took the heads off.
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So Will, I should be able to remove the intake, stick my priming tool on the pump, and spin it till oil starts pouring out of the holes under the "lifter spider" that holds the roller lifters in place?
Thanks

 

Only if the lifters are out of their bores. Otherwise, oil will only come out of the ends of the pushrods that are in the correct position. Those holes under the "spider" are for oil drain back to the pan.

 

Will, thanks for that info. I guess it pays to keep an old engine block laying around, I just went out and pulled a lifter out of my old block that still laying outside, and I never noticed that there were oil passages in the lifter bores. Never occurred to me that the little hole in the side of the lifter was for that, guess I don't pay attention, or I never thought real hard about how oil got up there. I've rebuilt 3 motors with only the help of the web and a Chiltons book, and Chilton's never describes how the oil travels around and where the passages are.
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So it appears that all the lifters on one side are all feed oil off the same passage, so if the first lifter bore in the chain was worn out/sloppy, all of the oil could run out the sides between the lifter and the bore walls if loose enough and NO oil would make it the other 7 lifters on that side. Is the right??
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In other words, if 1 lifter is removed, oil will not make it to the others in front of the removed one?
Thanks buddy, you're a tremendous help!

 

It would act like a leak in a water line......the pressure would drop throughout the entire system.

 

Got everything apart, took aintake and all rockers and push rods out.
Took all of the lifters out, cleaned them and re-installed lifters, ran drill extension w/primer tool, oil flowed out of driver side lifters just fine. Passenger side didn't flow because the distributor was removed.
So I made a primer tool out of an old distributor I had, cut the gear off and removed the rotor, and re-installed the piece left after cutting gear off, worked like a charm.
This time, both sides had oil pouring out of the lifters, no push rods installed yet.
Reinstalled driver side rockers, now oil comes out of only 4 of them on that side, the first and last rocker are oiling fine. Tried different setting for the lifter preload but was still unsucessful.
But my drill is not a high speed one either.
I noticed the oil coming out of the lifters was coming out around the sides of the plunger, because of this, I could not tell if it was coming out the center plunger hole or not.
On the pass side, oil was coming out of most of the pushrods without the rockers installed yet.
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Bottom line, its still apart and I have no idea why oil will not come out of all of them, yet the very front and back one are oiling great???? Again, they all worked great before I took the heads off...
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Will, have you had any luck?

 

Hey Will, did you figure out why yours wasn't oiling?
I got oil pumping out of all the lifters before putting it back together.
Now its all back together and I have about 3 rockers on each side that would not start oiling. I put in 2 brand new lifters and one of them isn't oiling either so I have ruled out it being the lifter.
I finally said to heck with it and put the covers on and I'm done with it because I know there oil getting to the lifters, so I don't care about the tops since between the 5 that are oiling that will be enough to splash around on the top of the heads. Everything is roller bearing on the rockers so it doesn't need that much oiling anyway....I'm gonna drive it till it breaks this time as I'm tired of jacking with it....

 

Haven't had much time lately to mess with the truck. I've been living at work . They had laided off people because of slow sales.....but they are working the rest of us on MAJOR overtime trying to keep up with orders Typical managerial oxymoron. What they really need to due is get rid of some of the "Mahogany Row" fodder. We've only got 300 employees and at least 20 Vice Presidents????????? Just a tad top heavy , if you ask me.

Anywho....I should be able to get some work done on it this weekend. I'll let you know what I find.

Laters.......