Getting close to putting the new 383 in the car. One thing I have noticed after running it on the stand is the tremendous amount of oil in the valve covers. I am push rod oiling and the holes in the push rods are .076. Actually, when I primed it, it was amazing how much oil came out of the push rod, as it appears they get oil all the time. I am also using EDM lifters and still oiling the rockers shafts as normal. I am using Crane Gold rocker arms, and I have plugged the oil hole going to the pushrod. I am external oiling with a 7 quart Milodon pan and their oil pump and plan to run 8 quarts. I do run a vacuum pump but a very conservative level, 6-8 range. I have bumped my spring pressure to over 400 on the nose because it may see 7200-7300 every pass. I pan to run Valvoline 20/50 Race (conventional oil).

Two questions/concerns
1) I am curious if the pushrods are allowing enough relief that it is compromising the oil pressure to the EDM lifters thus the cam (with an .018 hole I assume it needs some pressure to work)?
2) Will I see a drop in pressure due to the amount of oil going to top side of the engine at 7300 rpms?

My dad said that they use to put pipe cleaners in the push rods on the small block chevy stuff they stock car raced back in the day. I have read that the press pin seems to a consistent way of slowing things down, so I have ordered a set to look into putting into the pushrods. Just not sure how much they will restrict until I get them in my hands-assuming .040, so that would give .035 of oil feed.

Probably too much oil to the top end if you are both oiling thru the pushrods and sending oil to the top from the cam bearing. But the devil is in the details. It will depend on what your bearing clearances are, what type of bearings you have, how good the oil passages are, etc. First clue will be what your oil pressure is at hot idle and at WOT.

You don't need both that's WAY to much oil. Pushrod restrictors really are not the right way to restrict the oil there but with a running engine about the only option. As for restriction size there you can go pretty small and not have eny issues. But start by loosing the stock oiling or pr and adjust from there. A crane gold rocker can oil through the pushrod properly??? Or is it just dumping oil out the adjuster with nothing going to the rocker body/bushing?

If the lifters being used are std AMC solids with an EDM hole in the face(like a Comp 2901-16) then the amount of oil being fed to the pushrod cups “should be” metered(restricted) internally.

However, the tool steel versions I’ve seen don’t seem to have any metering(oil thru the lifter is unrestricted) and will usually over oil the top end without some sort of restriction in place.

We use valve covers with clear tops on the dyno so we can observe the oiling. Lots of engines have been blown up over the years because of oil getting trapped in the valve covers. Fairly common problem on some engines.

I should have mentioned that I am using cup adjusters on the Crane Gold rockers, so I am using ball on ball pushrods (that is why I plugged the pushrod oil hole on the rocker arm). The cup adjusters have a hole through the middle so I have oil coming out the top of the adjuster-when I primed the motor this is where most of the oil was coming. I would love to see this motor with a set of those clear valve covers on it to see just how much oil is coming out of the top of those adjusters ( I bet it would look like a car wash).

I am using the Comp EDM lifters (2901).

I have .003 clearance on the mains using a full grooved bearing and .003 on the rods (aluminum).

Sounds like the oil metering part of the lifters is allowing a pretty generous amount of oil to pass thru.
Imo, the original top end oiling would have been adequate with the stock cup type pushrods and adjusters.

Now that you’ve converted the rockers as you have, I’d only want enough pushrod oiling to lube the pushrods and adjusters.
That could be a very small hole.

To put in it perspective……
When using the full time oiling on Indy heads, one .050 hole per side is plenty to oil everything.

I switched to the cup adjusters to help out the oil hole situation on the Crane rockers. The oil hole on the Crane rocker causes you to have to have quite a bit of adjuster showing just to get oil to the pushrod. This was causing me to lose quite a bit of cam lift because of the kick-out of the ball adjuster. I guess I have traded one problem for another with this problem looking a little worst than the first. I guess I can check into a small tap for the push rods and install some set screws and drill a small hole-or stuff three pipe cleaners into each push rod.

Of course, we don’t “know” if you’re getting “too much” oil up top.
As long as the oil pump pickup doesn’t start sucking air during the run………you might be fine as is.

7300? Your rod bearings will tell you if it's too much.

A single .060" hole on each side will keep the top end happy enough.

You can go REALLY small on the restrictors and still have plenty of oil.

FWIW I have full-time oiling to the top end. There is a single restrictor per side that's drilled to .060". By comparison, you have eight per side at .078 PLUS your oil feed !!

I had this issue. Though my pushrods had a .107" hole. It was solved by installing roll pins in the push rods. This reduced the oil flow drastically. Been that way over 10 years. Cheap and easy.
Doug

Maybe you guys can answer this, if you run a hollow pushrod on a Mopar solid roller lifter cam (conventional shaft oiling through the cam bearings) ...does any oil still "pump" up the pushrods to the rockers from the up and down motion of the lifters? i know oil feeds in the rocker studs feed it the other way (gravity), I just wondered if any pushes up. small blocks (especially aluminum heads) don't seem to have much in the way of drainback (that doesn't pool up and drain down the pushrod passages) and as we know it tends to all go to the back of the heads when racing)

I've been running a knurled bushing around the #2 and #4 rocker shaft hold down bolts (where the oil passages enter the rocker shaft to limit top end oil to "less but adequate" rocker oiling, and since I'm running Cup type rocker studs I can use standard thick wall comp pushrods that are rounded on both ends (like any SBF or SBC). The bushing probably has about .003 clearance all around.

I don't know if I've stumbled onto a cool solution to limit oil to the springs or not (my logic concluding I'm leaving more oil in the system to feed the mains and rods) but it has been working quite well.

Did you have the cam journals grooved for full time oiling to the rockers? If not don't worry about over oiling he top end through stock oiling design, maybe restrict the oiling from the pushrods

No mods made to the cam journal.

Got the roll pins yesterday. Just holding one up to the pushrod feels like the fit will be tight. I bought 5/64, so they are measuring .084 in the middle, my pushrod is .075-.076. It looks like it will leave about .040 oil clearance. There happened to be a paper clip on the table and just for kicks I slid it through the roll pin. The paper clip is .032. So if you really wanted to cut back, there may be a way to put in a 2nd restriction, in this case it would leave about .010.

Does it matter which end of the pushrod you put the pins in?
Would putting one on each end slow it down more?

They the shortest you could find?

No, they had some shorter (I believe 1/4" and maybe 1/2").
Without getting too far into hydrodynamics, I thought the length would restrict more and plus maybe easier to install.

My 2-cents.
Put the roll pins in the pushrods (top), plug the hole in the adjuster at the very top so no oil goes out the top. Some level of press fit.
The pushrod will get enough oil due to valve lash to lube the cup/ball.

The point of the oil hole in the adjuster is to fire oil at the valve cover to splash and cool the springs. If there is a squirter hole in the rocker aimed at the springs then yeah, you don't need the holes in the adjusters.

I'll need to check, but I'm 95% sure the rockers have a hole that is pointed at the roller/valve tip area.

You can cut them shorter with a cut off wheel. I put mine in the bottom of the pushrod. That way you could keep an eye if they ever moved upward. Mine have never moved.
Doug

I tried the 5/64 pins on another set of pushrods I had just to see how it would work. First, yep 1” is way too long especially when the fit is as tight as it is, so Stanton’s question about the length was a good one. I got one about 1/4” in and it’s not coming out, so I will likely cut it off. I am having a heck of time getting something to fit, of course I am ordering off Amazon so that is probably most of the issue. The 5/64 pins were .086 but the gap was only about .005-6, so that is why they were not going in. I tried 2mm, which should be the same as the 5/64, they had a better gap but still very very tight going in. I when I measured them they were .090, with closer to a .10-.15 gap. I then thought if the 2mm were that far over spec then maybe a 1.5mm, may actually be worth trying.

When I go to actually put them in the pushrods, I will likely heat the pushrods in a sonic cleaner and try to chill the pins in the fridge.

I think we have a winner. These were from Amazon but were “The Hillman Group” brand and are regular steel, whereas most of the others have been stainless steel. They fit into the starter tool and went in with resistance but went in. I think they were around .084 and had about a .017 gap- once in they left a .041 orifice. I do think the 1/4” is probably about the right length as it gives you the ability to use a starter punch for a few hits before moving over to an actual punch. This info is all for the next guy.

Just FYI

https://youtu.be/L5zH-ReboTk?feature=shared