Haven't had a chance to check out the PR oiling issue yet.
But last week I went ahead and ordered a HV Melling pump.
It took me all afternoon to get it on, because you have to lift the motor about 3" to get the old one off and the new one one. It sits behind the frame and not enough room to pull it out. What a pain in the butt.
SO now the new pump is on and guess what?...even LOWER oil pressure than before!!! What the heck!

With the standard pump, I got 50psi cold (did not change with engine revs) which went down to just under 40psi warm and 15psi at idle.

NOW with the HV pump I get just under 40psi cold, which still does not change with rpm
and it remains there even when hot, but idle now drops to 25psi when warm...but I haven't had it as warm as I'd like because now the car won' start! I have the Sniper EFI on it and seems to have suddenly gone wacky.

I am having no luck at all.

Luck really has nothing to do with it.
You're working on the wrong end of the oiling system.

You say there is tons of oil up top with the motor running.
This is the problem........ Not the pump.
BB mopars with stock top end oiling don't have tons of oil running out of the rockers at idle.

I'll say it again.......... Verify you in fact do have pushrod oiling currently.
If you do, replace the pushrods with some that have no oil holes.

IF YOU ARE HAVING EFI problems, check your oil & make sure it is not GAS diluted.

I'll get to checking the pushrods for oiling next weekend.

I think I am also having lifter issues. They started out nice and quiet, but then started getting loud. As I mentioned before last week, I had seen that a pushrod had come out when I was checking out the rockers. So I put it back in and reset the preload on all the lifters. After that the engine was nice and quiet. THis weekend it started getting loud again (doesn't matter what rpm.) I pulled the covers off and no pusrods had popped out this time, and I couldn't find any loose feeling pushrods. But yet there is still all the clackity clack.

A quick google search shows that many people have this problem with the Comp hydraulic roller lifters (and yes, they are pushrod oiling.) Apparently the plunger has a tendency to get stuck.

ANother thing I saw during my google search (and somebody alluded to this earlier in this thread) is that these lifters can leak out a lot of oil in some blocks. Well looking at the fine print at Comps website, they list their RB Hyd Roller lifters for being for "early blocks". And even their flat tappets are broken down to two types,,,one for early blocks (to 1968) which are shorter, and later blocks, which are longer.

So long story short, I and going to pull the intake/pan off and check out what the lifters are doing, and of course how much oil seems to be getting through the pushrods.

I've been checking the oil a lot to look for anything funny. Oil looks pristine. I guess that's good from the bearing's standpoint!

The problem I've been having with the EFI is the spark control and the idle. As soon as I start cranking the motor, it jumps to full advance...which makes starting difficult. It stopped doing that as suddenly as it started, and now the car starts. Idle control still does not work worth a damn, but that's a really minor issue.

Fueling seems to be fine.

I still don't understand how an HV pump makes LESS pressure than the standard one, however. Since I finally got the EFI working again and got the car all warmed up...it has slightly less pressure at idle and at 2000 rpm than with the regular pump.

The "if it were me" answer is......
Replace the lifters with some Howrads 91767. These have the shrouded wheels which shouldn't "leak" out around the wheels at higher lifts.
They will likely need a different length pushrod, so you can get some with no holes since you'll be swapping them anyway.

Reading through several threads regarding hyd roller lifters on other boards, my recommendation would be to run Driven Hot Rod oil in the 10w40 grade.

A "high volume" pump is just that. Volume, not pressure...

Somethings got me vexed,

why would a solid roller lifter push more oil/drop main pressure) with a hollow pushrod? Wouldnt the cup just bleed the same amount under the pushrod if you had a solid pushrod?

Thought it would just bleed to the valley instead? Theres a bleed hole in the lifter cup. I mean i could see a slight pressure drop but not a big drop....no?

I went to PR oiling and restricted ( but not blocked completely) the passways to the shaft feed.
I run the MRLs that direct pressure feed the rollers. My op is only about 45 hot at idle with thin 5/30 oil running through a big cooler a milodon star rotor pump and remote filter. Doesnt run a lot more than that on a run but works really well and i turn 7200. I never ran 10/30 but i would think it would be over 60-65 cold, just run thinner oil 'cause its got a relatively long way to route before getting to the mains. I got about 10 qts in the system all in.

Nascar guys i know finally proved to me that running tighter with thinner oil seals better and the oil 'gets there' ( all the nooks and crannies) better even with lower system pressure.

It's a hyd roller, so there is no lash to allow any leakage(which would still show a reduction in oil pressure) between the pushrods and lifters/rockers to keep the oil in the valley.
The OP says he's using PRW bushed rockers, which I believe have a hole drilled straight through the adjuster screw(hence the OP's comment about the oil shooting out of the top of the rocker).
So, if you have pushrod oiling lifters and pushrods with holes in them, you're going to have an additional 16 "leaks" pumping oil to the top end that aren't intended to be part of the std oiling system.

Not to mention whether or not this will cause any issues by helping to suck the pan dry if more oil is going up top than the drain back can accommodate.

If you ran solid pushrods, they would in essence "seal off" the oil feed in the pushrod cups.

If the OP is running the PRW stainless rockers there is a hole drilled in the top of the rocker. It's not through the screw. And oil will leak out of those like a river.

I used a piece of lead shot and blocked the holes. I can't see why the hole is where they put if. Just floods the top end.

Roll pin in the push rod with the hole soldered up.
Doug

That is exactly what is happening. There seems to be way more oil than necessary coming thru that hole.
But wouldn't I need at least a little oil coming out? It funnels down to the retainer/spring/valve guide. Or is there already enough oil splashing around in there that I don't need a direct feed?



I believe that there is a hole thru the adjusting screw that is supposed to feed the top of the pushrod from the shaft. And I believe oil is coming thru the pushrod into the rocker (the wrong way) thru that hole and adding to the total volume of oil going to the rocker.

I was actually thinking of blocking the hole in the screw because that would be easy to do and would stay fast (it would have nowhere to go once the screw was in the rocker) as opposed to trying to block a hole in the pushrod with something that could possible work loose later.
That way the lifter would be oiling the top and bottom of the pushrod, but not putting more oil into the shaft.

Is there a flaw in the plan that any of you see?

If I buy new lifters, then I will by new pushrods and then the exercise will be moot, but in the meantime...

Yes, the screws have a hole in them. Are you still feeding oil up to the head from the cam?

The hole in the screw lets oil from the shaft out to the adjuster, basically backwards of pushrod oiling. So, you should NOT have oil through the pushrods and oil to the shafts from the block. It needs to be one way or the other, if that makes sense.

As for the holes in the top of the rockers...take off a valve cover. Lay down visqueen everywhere you can. Pull the distruibutor and prime the engine. Those holes will squirt oil 18-20 inches in the air at drill motor RPM. All 8 of the holes.

IMO, there is enough oil moving through the adjusters and out of the rockers without the huge amount of oil coming out of the top of the rockers. It's a big amount squirting out of them.

FWIW on my SB with 273 iron rockers/shafts I drilled a 1/8 hole thru the rocker and shaft on the valve side and drilled thru the shaft on the pushrod side (there already is a hole in the rocker on that side, but not the shaft) both em I drill with the cam on base circle so there is a bit of dwell time for oil to flow and I braze shut the hole on top of the rockers and the outer hole on the pushrod side of the rocker that Ma used to access drill the inner rocker hole already there used for lubing the threads/pushrod cup and I close the side holes in the shafts with lead shot or solder as they are way off. I do keep the bottom holes in the banana grooves.

Just for the record, I don't rule out the possibility that the motor has a bearing issue, which "could" be a big part of the problem.
However, I dont know how you'd be able to quantify that until the oil flow to the heads had been reduced down to what's normal(stock), and then verifying there isn't an abundance of oil blowing out below the lifters at higher lifts.

If after those issues have been rectified the oil pressure is still low, then you can start thinking about possible bearing clearance problems.

I'm with you on this. He may have a bearing issue.

And, after all I posted, I may think about pulling my rockers and instead of plugging that oil hole on the top of the rocker, I may thread the hole and drill the hole out to .030 or something so some oil does feed out of it.

Or, I may just drill a very small hole on the spring side of the rocker to directly oil the spring.

When I first put the engine together, I figured there was enough oil flow from between the rockers and at the adjusters. Now I'm going through all sorts of mental masturbation thinking about what is probably a nonissue.

Mad, mine is a race app so I had to do some mods

HS rockers for Mopars have no provision to oil the valve side of the rocker, and neither do Jesels ....... So having tons of oil going to that side of the rocker certainly isn't "mandatory".

On my own HS rockers I drilled a really small hole(like .024") on the underside of the rocker in the retainer relief cut area. I don't know if it made any difference or not, but I felt better about it.

If the PRW rockers don't have the small hole on top to feed the valve side(like the Comps they are a copy of do), then I would add that hole, along with plugging the top of the adjuster screw hole.
IMO, that really shouldn't be a through hole...... And it's not on the Comps(or the T&D's which use the same style adjuster).
The small feed hole on the top does not intersect with the groove in the body, so the oil must squeeze between the body and shaft to get out of this hole...... A built in restrictor.

The PRW's do have that hole on top. That's the one I block. There is so much oil there it's rediculous. That hole on the PRW rocker breaks in between the two bushings so it flows a bunch of oil.

So, maybe I need to leave that hole plugged and drill a small hole in the rocker in the spring relief. Do you think the springs need all that oil Dewyane?

I will also check and see if my adjusters are through drilled. I don't think they were. If they are, you're right, that should be plugged.

If that hole on top intersects the groove/space between the bushings, that's no good.
It just allows the oil to run out of there, instead of lube the bushings and adjuster screw(path of least resistance).
I don't know how hard they are....... If they could be tapped or not, but if they could be, I think I'd try and install some small brass set screws and drill them with something like a .012 hole(at the most).

Or drill a new hole next to that one, at an angle, so it goes right into/through the bushing.
Again, I would have this hole really small, although if it's into the bushing area and relies on oil squeezing between the bushing and shaft to get into the hole, the size of the hole will be less critical.

Here's the spring feed hole on an Indy BB rocker(not great rockers, but IMO they got this part right).