hey all have a 69 350 motor that I'm trying to get home (see Bench for msg, need some "trucking" help) Busted exhaust bolt in head, so I'm going to take the heads to the shop to get them cleaned up. Since I'm going to have it apart I'm planning on putting a RV12 cam in w/new bearings (140k on the motor). Was thinking that I'd upgrade to the newer lifters and convert the topend oiling to go thru the pushrods. Thought I've seen something somewhere in my internet hunting that said that you could block a passage somewhere on the early blocks when you converted to pushrod oiling, but for the life of me I can't find it. Can anybody point me in the right direction?
Supposedly you have to block the oil passage in the head to do this right. If it were me, I'd pay the few extra bucks and get the correct lifters with your new cam. You may not even have to change your pushrods, if you're low on funds. Are your rocker arms blown? They are an awesome design and I'd guess that they aren't. There is one thing for sure, is that if you are keeping the stock aluminum rocker arms, then you'll need to go with custom pushrods with one large ball end (with an oil hole in it!) for the rocker arms and a small end for the lifter side. In case you haven't guessed, I really like the 68 - 69 design. You have good size lifter and rocker "cups" for the push rods. My $.02
nah, rods are fine - other than the mileage and the broken stud everything is *supposed* to be working fine but my thought is that it seems that pushrod oiling is more effective. IIRC, the article/info that I read on the net implied that i can keep the rockers and just upgrade the pushrods to the newer style. but your point about the ball end was good, didn;t take that into consideration... I'll probably just leave it alone
I've been using the "old-school" style '69 rockers/oiling and have put some serious pounding on them with no problems. I had well over 100 1/4 passes on the first engine with more street abuse on top of that. The nice thing about the old style rockers is the better ratio. I've yet to understand this, but the rockers are the same for the '68-'69 350 and 400. The 400 lists a 1.6:1 ratio and the 350 a 1.55:1. How does the same rocker give two different ratios? Now if someone made a nice set of adjustable pushrods for the '68-'69 rockers I might be able to eliminate the sometimes noticeable "tick-tick" after a serious pounding:grin:
I am currently using the pushrods that have holes for oil.:blast: I am going to take them out ASAP. The ticking is driving me nuts. :stmad: These pushrods were bought by mistake not knowing my engne oiled through the block and the lifters were for solid pushrods. ou: Thanks God I kept my old pushrods, but I have to get another set of lifters. It looks like it will be Federal Mogal Sealed Power lifters. I would stick to original setup unless you are going to change to adjustable rockarm assy. That's my 2 cents. Julian
i show HT 946 seal power 68-69 lifter PN for solid pushrods, HT 969 for lifters for hollow pushrod, but its off a faxed copy that they sent to me so the number is blurry i wrote 2 phone numbers, one is right for federal mogul cust svc: 800-325-8886 800-560-1400 who knows what the other one might be, but hey - its free to see page 435 and 436 in their catalog, might want to give them a try to confirm
They are a very good design! Same basic construction as the Nailheads are, and we know that Nailheads are nearly indestructable. I'd keep 'em.
