Started break in on a fresh 440...pressure at 60 pounds and all was fine-- couple of weeks latter started motor and heard a tapping noise... sounded like a lifter- but noise went away and came back
And now is gone- but oil pressure drops to 22 pounds when oil and motor gets hot-- drivers side
exhaust is blowing blue smoke --- when i give it more gas the oil pressure goes up but I still have the blue smoke from drivers side exhaust—passenger side is clean

22 at idle & it jumps up when you goose it you're ok. I'd suspect a leaking valley pan intake gasket with a slight leak on the drivers side.

Is the smoke comming out the exhaust pipe or comming off the engine?

drivers side exhaust

Pull the intake and pan and look for evidence of the leak that Robert pointed out might be there.

ok -- but would a bent push rod cause this smoke-?

A bent pushrod would only disable one cyl's power output. either the valve stems seals are bad(not likely as this eng is fresh), a bad head gasket letting oil thats going up to the valvetrain from the cam journal leak over to a cyl(extremely unlikely) or it's the tin valley pan gasket(very likely) especially w the amt of smoke & w it smoking on one bank. People install valley pans dry & have no issues but I believe the tin is not flexible enough to seal vacuum & I use permatex #2, the thick brown goo in a toothpaste tube a light EVEN coat on each side of the tin on the port openings.

so do you think the oil- tapping noise- and blue smoke coming from the driver side exhaust are not related??

not related.

Tapping noise could be exahust leak.

Have you pulled the intake yet?

yes- a small miss i am going to start working on it 2 night

How could oil be burned in a cyl that is not firing?

update--- Took the valve covers off and noticed that one of the push rods was not under the rocker arm --- I pulled the rockers arm off and pulled put a new push rod in --- the old push rod did not look bent --- i put it back together and started the motor—it still looks like it smoking but it is hard to tell because its dark --- the miss seems to be gone .. I need to check it when I have more light--- I am curious what would cause the push rod to come out of place—I hope this is the problem

bump

Could be that it slipped out of position when you bolted the rockers down. Seen it happen more than once. That was your clatter that quit. If it isn't missing now drive it a bit. It may take a little time to clean out good and quite smoking.

its is still smoking after 5 min of use-- when i give it gas the smoke seems to go away--- but comes back at idle ... i am wondering what would cause the rod to fall out if it was put in right..
any suggestions on what to do next -- i am trying to avoid pulling the head

ok - i have to pull the intake to get to the head-
but i do not think i have a intake leak- not when i found the push rod out of place- i am afaid that some thing in the head caused the push rod to fall out---

your heads are fine

what about damage to valve stems seals or guides -- that would cause the smoke- i just can not buy the fact that i haVE two problems-- a leaking intake and a push rod out of place-- some thing caused that push rod to fall out--

the harmonics & valve train bouncing caused the push rod to jump when you got on it. a loose guide or a bad seal could cause your symtoms but generally not as MUCH smoke as you are reporting plus the fact that this is a fresh eng & if the guide clearance was correct when the heads were done nothing could have messed them up(not that quick). 2 problems happening simultaneously will(& has) confuse a person like nothing else. I would just hate to see you pull the heads & intake & put it together & be thinking that the head was the problem when the heads were fine & changing(or resealing) the valley pan gasket along with it was what really fixed it. The intake is a MUCH more likely cause & much easier & cheaper to do.

Three things will cause a pushrod to come out of the rocker.
1. Is obvious, it wasn't properly in the rocker cup to begin with.
2. The rod gets bent, usually caused by either the lifter pumping up and staying there, or the associated valve sticking shut (or possibly even just a bad/weak pushrod). What valve springs did you use?
3. Some wear in the rocker cup that causes the rod to jump out. I have seen factory rockers so worn that the pushrod comes up through them!

I have also seen replacement valve seals that simply didn't seal well, but I too would suggest that you check out the intake gasket first!

I suggest taking it fro a short drive first if it isn't still missing and give the engine a chance to clean out. Sitting idling just don't cut it.

I had a 72 440 once that the guy said had developed a miss, so I got it cheap. You could see the heads had been hot tanked and he said it ran fine and then started missing so he parked the car and it rotted down into the ground.

SO I got the engine home, pulled the valve cover and found one pushrod laying. One end of it had sharpened to a point.

I noticed it had new, thick composite Fel Pro style head gaskets. So I ordered a new set of pushrods and new steel shim factory type gaskets.

Installed all that stuff and a set of good stock rockers and was good for over 10K miles and still good when I sold that car it was in.

I think that block/head combo had a bad tolerance stack, and the double what stock thickness gaskets made that pushrod on the end cylinder not have enough preload so it moved around and failed.

Now is that like your problem? Who knows...

i went ahead and tighten down the intake bolts- its hard to drive the car because of little bugs i need to work out of it ... but i took it for a drive around the block and stepped on it-- the good news is NO SMOKE-- not to say it will not show up latter but as of 2day NO SMOKE-- need to work on the front end- adj timing and carb and start making this charger road worthy..

What kind of rocker arms are you using? You have not said. Factory setup or adjustable?

Hydraulic cam and lifters?

More info please

Good to here. I have seen many times that it seems to take for ever to clean out at idle but a short loaded drive and complete warm up is a lot more effective. Hope it stays clean for you.

this is a stock 440 hp rebuild ...What kind of Factory setup with Hydraulic cam and lifters..
... i am going to remove the valve cover again and check the push rod and rocker arms to make sure it still looks good- this motor is fast- even with the problem- i have a lot of 383 which i love but have not driven this car since high school (1982) it seems to move- i am still concerned about oil pressure drop down to 20 after warm up but jumps up to 40-45 when driving
--when oil is cold prussure is at 55-60--also i
need to check my water temp its going to 220 may need to check Thermostat to see if is opening or get a lower temp one-

A next heavier wt of oil would up your psi a bit & when you take the stat out to check it take it out for a drive w no stat for a day which will tell you if the stat itself was restricting the flow or if the prob is elsewhere. It'll take longer to warm up but that wont hurt you for just (1) day.