I just purchased a 354 hemi that supost to have been rebuild(most likely not a professional shop) 20 years ago, tried priming it today with a drill and got 30psi and rotated the engine at same time, could not get oil to the rockers but funny thing was oil coming out of the rear drain hole on the passenger side head, got the engine running for a few minutes oil pressure dropped from 30 to 5psi after hot, took covers off and no oil from rockers still.
These motors don't oil the top end very well anyway, my 392 had the same troubles that you are having. I had a local Builder pull it down and check it over. He said there was an oil Vally plug that was leaking a little and some of the oil Gallies were not cleaned out enough when it was rebuilt. I now have 45 psi dropping to 25, and I can just barely see oil on the rockers after running it. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The oil first goes to the bottom end, next it goes to the cam and lifter bores, then the#2 cam bearing feeds the left rocker and #4 cam bearing feeds the right rockers.The 2 and 4 c am bearings and cam are drilled so the oil passes through a small squirt a time. It takes a while to fill the rocker tubes so initialy the top end is dry for quite a long time. So I remove the valve covers for first start up and manualy oil the top end on the first fire up till I see it oiling itself. Then I reinstall the covers.Big hassle but safe.
This is a good place to start your search. Lots of good info http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...h:--Oil-systems--filters,-pumps,-pans.117468/
On the first prime with a drill, it takes a long time to get the oil up there. With the drill running - slowly rotate the crank and you will hear and feel in the drill and see on the pressure guage when the cam hole aligns into rockers oiling position. Stop the rotation of crank. In this position the rocker shafts will begin to fill. You'll hear and feel in the drill when that one side is full. At that time you should see oil start to drip up top. Slow turn the crank and repeat for next side. Now you know shafts are full and primed. If you start it and still dont have oil flow thats like a rebuilt engine - then you'll know that you have to take it apart and clean and check it. The inside of the shafts collect all sorts of crap,it needs cleaned out- maybe the rebuilder did it maybe not? 20 year old assembly lube isn't going to be conducive to oil flow either.
I did the oil priming correctly, it is the oil coming out of the rear drain hole of the head that puzzles me, must be a leak around the pump that is spaying oil up the hole, will have to take oil pan off and see
Well, if oil is coming UP and OUT of a hole that the oil is supposed to go IN and DOWN there certainly is something wrong (enter captain obvious ) Hard to say what it is but I think your idea is a good one to help track it down. If you have it fully primed and no oil at the shafts you'll be looking at taking it apart Any way.
On passenger side drain hole, where exactly is this oil coming out of ? can you show a picture ? If the rocker shafts were taken apart for cleaning or some other reason make sure that the rocker stands are installed correctly as they align to a hole in the head that feeds the rocker shafts.
there is also a intake and exhaust specific rocker shaft. and as stated above one stand per side has a hole in it that needs to be in the right position to take oil from the head.
The pressure dropping after it warms up sounds like a oil pumping or supply issue ? I has this problem on my 392 where it was 20psi at startup and was dropping. We shut it down and pulled the pan to find the oil pump was missing the spring that regulates pressure. There is a galley plug by the distributor gear, if they left that out, it might behave the same way. Nice pictures here that show the plug: http://www.hemihaines.com/build-an-early-model-hemi.html
If this engine has a SB Mopar pump conversion, be sure that the pump and adapter block are properly seated on the main cap. And as stated, pull the distributor and make sure the oil galley plug was reinstalled.
If that galley plug is missing by the intermediate shaft dist gear, you will have no pressure at all. I usually drill a .050 hole in it to lube the gear.
you may also want to check the pickup tube screen if you take off the pan. i have seen these plug up. as far as the oil going up the drain hole i would do a leak down test. with the engine sitting as long as it has a ring or rings could be stuck. this could cause some serious blow by that needs to be vented some how. the drains could be that vent.
the oil was coming out of the drain hole when I was priming the engine, not when it was running. I will take pan off, submerge the oil pump pickup in a container of oil and prime the engine with my 1/2 drill and see were the oil leak is coming from. will try and get a photo if I find.
ok, took oil pan off, cut a container and submerged the pump pick up in oil, start priming and oil was coming out of that dame oil hole from the passenger side drain, top and bottom. then I decided to remove the original oil filter adapter. I don't have picture of block but made this drawing, that small black hole in block surface connects to the return drain back to pan. last person to assemble the engine put the oil filter adapter (filter) facing down, it should be facing up. the housing with the filled portion should cover the drain hole. oil pressure from the pump hole #1 was bleeding to the drain. Hole #2 is oil coming out of the filter going to supply the engine. having it backwards also had the dirt being trapped in center of filter(small surface) not on the out side. hope this helps someone else . I will keep up date when I get oil pan back on and and primed and see difference in oil pressure and oil to rockers.
got the engine primed and running with hot heads oil filter adapter. I have 70psi at idle now. all it was is the oil filter adapter installed up side down
Thanks for posting the followup solution. This will be good for future reference for a lot of people.
Glad you fixed the problem. Just wanted to add something I also did with the oil bypass on one of my engines.