350turbo411

ok my engine is blowing some blue smoke and I have quite a bit of blow by. I pulled the valve covers and to my amazement found no oil.(well there was a light coating). So i cranked the motor over and had it running and no oil was flowing. I reved it up a bit ....still nothing!!! after shutting the motor down i noticed smoke coming out of the nickel sized holes in the center of the head (no smoke coming out of the ones on the extreme left or right) what could this be ???its pretty crusty under there but...i should have something right??after only a few minutes of engine running and i shut it down ...i can hear metal cooling down...ya know that tick or knocking.......could this be a dirty filter...??? i dont think i should use engine flush on it....its a 78 305. compression is average 150 psi....cyl..number 1 is about 135psi. no water in oil..no oil in water...the blowby just seems like vapors
....that smell like oil........any ideas?? i'm not about to drive it like this....its been sitting for about 8 months during a restoration.....now i'm extremely nervous............i've used up all my allowed money............it also seems like i can move my rockers to the left and to the right some .......but they are pretty tight up and down wise.................i dont know....

if you guys have any ideas let me know......................

thanx..................

Rob

SSC

If it ran for a few minutes and no oil reached the top than most likely its the oil pump. You could try a new filter It probably wont do anything, the bypass vavle in the adaptor would allow oil flow even with the filter plugged hence "bypass"
As far as flush is concerned, I havent had any problems with it, and if you need to replace the oil pump the pan has to come down anyway so you might as well flush the oil. People habe problems with debre plugging the screen, but since the pans off you can clean any debre.

SSC

Vader

You may have a problem with the oil pump, or maybe not. Oil pumps are usually pretty reliable and don't often fail completely. They will generally at least move some oil and build some pressure unless there is a catastrophic failure. If the lifters are not rattling like a snake, you probably have some oil pressure.

If there is sludge and varnish under the rocker covers, there is a very good chance that there is sludge and varnish everywhere. I would risk the engine flush, even though the engine is older. Without lubrication at the critical valve train components, the engine is going to eat itself in short order anyway, so what's the danger?

Since the rocker covers are off, you may want to remove a pair of push rods and inspect the through holes to make sure oil can get through them. Count the number ot turns of the rocker adjusting nut as you loosen the rockers enough to get the push rods out. You should be able to see through the push rod tubes clearly. If the push rods are plugged with sludge, remove them all for cleaning or replacement. Reinstall the push rods and readjust the rocker nuts the same number of turns you counted when loosening them.

I would suggest running the engine under NO load and at low RPM (not above 2,000) to full operating temperature with a few quarts of clean 20W oil and the rest automatic transmission fluid and a new oil filter. A cheap oil filter should work fine for this since it won't be on for very long adn only has to trap the largest particles.

If you want to induce some oil flow to the rockers, you might want to keep the rocker covers off while you do this. Use an oil can to manually lubricate the rockers before you start. With the engine idling hot, try backing off each rocker adjusting nut about one full turn, one rocker at a time. This will force the lifter pintles to pump up to their full extension, and may break the oil metering disc free, allowing oil to pump through as it should. Slowly readjust the rocker to the correct position, then continue another half-turn or so to force the lifter pintle below its normal position. Allow the lifter to stabilize for a few moments, then readjust to the proper final hot lash of 1/2 - 3/4 turn. Do this for each rocker. If you are lucky, you should have some oil flowing at each rocker.

Once you can establish some oil flow to the rockers, allow the engine to reache full operating temperature for a few minutes. Try not to run the engine for more than an hour with the transmission fluid, and remember that you don't want to create any heavy loads by putting the transmission in gear or "blipping" the throttle sharply to increase RPM.

When you shut down, change the oil and filter to your favorite flavor. Don't use a cheap filter for this change. Plan on changing the oil again very soon, since all the sludge you will break free will tend to collect in other areas if it is not trapped by the filter.

Just a hint - synthetic engine lubricants clean sludge and varnish very well, but don't waste your money on synthetics for the first couple of quick oil changes. After the second change, you might want to try synthetic, but don't extend the change interval just because you're using synthetics. You need to clear out the debris and sludge as soon as possible and not allow it to circulate any more than necessary. You might be able to save this engine yet.

350turbo411

WOW..!!!!!!!!! thanks......sounds like i'm going to have a busy saturday. I've printed out your posts and look forward to getting them all greasy tomarrow. Ya know everytime i have a problem i post here and you guys are all over it... I do what you say and it ALWAYS works.....after this is solved the car will need to be primed and on the road......i'm having a problem with a bent alternator bracket or something...the pulleys arent matching up but.. i'm defenetely going to try out your suggestions and will let you know how it turns out...................

thanx guys.........................

hey.......might as well buy those new valve covers I wanted...just to put closure on the oil problem hahah.....


thank you

Rob

Jza

I have the hardest time convincing people of this. They figure, hey, it's running now...?