yeh you are right, could be all of that..... I need to check it all, but need a break from it. It has been too many evenings and nights on it and I'm slowly losing my motivation. going to get my friend to order those tips and give it a week without even going to the workshop...
Well.. nothing has happened, been having a break. However, my friend in Washington has got the 16 new tips... and the 3 tips i got from TA have arrive here today.. no wonder I don't have much preload, when comparing the new tips with the ones in the engine, mine are less than half the thickness of new!!
I dont have recent photos of the used ones or have taken any measurements, but on these 2 photos, you can see how thin the old ones are....and how thick the new ones are.
Damn that ain't bad. If you gonna make something I say make it strong. The hold downs for the shafts are. beefier too.
Just guessing. But an edjucated guess? Id say that's a 020 difference between the two. I just pulled out a back-up set for my 69 Looks like ill have to ponder this for a while
020 or 025... and you are on preload values. That's why I ended up getting all the 16s as when rotating the engine and looking at what the lifters were doing, the pre load didn't look like much.
Well.... finally an update! My friend arrived from the US today with the 16 rocker tips in his luggage.. at 9am I was outside his house to grab them and come to the workshop. Just changed all of them and torqued everything down, fire up later this evening as I'm on my own and need a friend here with me to keep an eye on everything. Have attached a photo showing the difference between the worn out ones and new ones.
How ever tough and good carbide is for cutting and machining metal's, it can fracture though. Is it used though anywhere in engine builds?
No, it is not. It would be a horrible idea to use carbide there, it is way to brittle for that area and the shape it is the diameter would probably break off but not before it started chipping and sent small super hard metal chips through the engine!
Well... despite the fuel pump packing up and some other minor delays, the cam has been broken in. **** loads of white smoke, not sure what it was, maybe condensation in the exhausts, water in the radiator wasn't disappearing, so I'm guessing it's all good with the gaskets. Smoke eventually dissappeared but got me worried for a while. Engine sounds sweet, no strange noises, no clunking, no ticking..... and the idle with this cam is a beauty!! We finished quite late, so tomorrow will be dropping the oil filter, get it checked, put new one in and then go for a drive...see what happens.
Well not if it was brazed to the rocker tips. In which case it would be virtually immune to wear and being well supported from above would be extremely unlikely to fracture. Take note, carbides are very commonly used for interrupted cuts where they are subject to impact loading and stress which would destroy any lesser material. Carbides are commonly used in all sorts of impact applications including rock drills, pavement grinders, and all sorts of metal saws. I agree if it was not well supported that might be an issue. But the reason it is not used is because of cost. Carbide is rather expensive. Jim
Hi all.. I'm still about now and again! Just to let you know, as I think you all deserve it after the help you have throughout all of it, the engine is still running strong. I have done about 600 miles on it, haven't really put my foot down, but it's all good. No noises, no smoke, nothing weird has happened. oil pressure still sits at 40psi when cruising at 1900 rpms Going to do an oil change this weekend - I know you all advise to stay with the 10/30 oil, but over here everyone uses the 20/50 on every single american classic car, so I'm going to compromise and go for a 15/50. Then keep an eye on the oil pressure - can always regulate it on the pressure adjuster. And as the oil is a bit thicker, always proper warm up before driving off... which I always do, and never ever ever I push it hard till everything is up to temperature. Im thinking of using this from comp, the 15/50, as I used their break in oil as well.
Still following....As I am steps behind you....Cleaning up engine compartment as we speak...Picked up a set of headers and TA Stage 1 intake off FB marketplace recently. So hopefully once this maintenance event at work finishes up I can get my motor back into my car.
Everybody over here over the age of 70, with worn out Chevys also use 20w50 in everything. JP, Get proper oil. 10w30. 50 weight is way too thick.
That's good oil pressure, no need for compromises. You have twice as much oil pressure @ 1,900 RPM that is minimally required, you can actually go with thinner oil. If you can get 30 PSI @ 1,900 and over 10 PSI at idle with 5W/30 or even 0w/30 your engine will be much happier with one of those. Try the 5W/30 first though to make sure the pressure doesn't drop down to far. With the thicker 15W/50 oil(over half way to gear lube thick!), your engine is going to put a whole lot of strain on the front cam bearing and cam/distributor gears unnecessarily, especially with the factory oil holes you didn't open up! You don't have a worn out sbc, you have a freshened up sbb so don't listen to those sbc guys or try to do what they're doing. Do what the sbb guys over here are doing seeing how you can't really follow any sbb guys over there because there's not too many around.
JP, no one wants to see your hard work go to waste because "all the other guys do it.". Just don't. No one knows why all these people run 20w50+ oil thats as thick as cold maple syrup, but there is 100% no reason to. That's a skeevy used car salesman tactic. Just don't. 10w30, according to your posts, is working perfect for you. DONT. 10psi per 1000rpm minimum, you are double that. Keep it that way.
don't confuse pressure with flow/volume. A Pressure gauge is only an easy way to tell if oil pump is working. If a flow or volume gauge was made that would be better. The bearings do their work with a thin film of oil between them and the journal. They don't rely on pressure for anything. In theory an engine would run fine with 0 oil pressure if it had the needed volume to not run dry. Thicker oil shows more pressure because it is more difficult for it to escape thru the bearing clearance. Thinner oil flows easier so it gets to the bearing quicker to do it's work. Pressure is created by restricting the flow. Think of a garden hose. With the end open and the water flowing the hose feels soft due to low pressure inside. Now screw a spray nozzle on the end. With no water flowing the hose is hard from internal pressure. However your garden is dying from lack of water.
