I just finished putting my 455 back together. Had both heads off for rebuild, took the timing cover off as well for a new front seal, and after reinstalling I reprimed the oil pump. I have over 50 psi at cold idle, but have no oil to the driver's side cylinder head. The passenger side has oil. The engine was oiling fine before disassembly. Is there anything with the oil pump bypass or other components that could impact this? This thing has been fighting me all the way. I'm getting real fed up. It wasn't getting oil when priming but I figured I was doing something wrong. I only ran it a couple minutes. Just checked the oil, it's about a quart low. I'll top it up.
Cam bearings installed during the re-build? If so, correct clocking of the front cam bearing. Or the front bearing is wiped. Possible something is restricting oil passage to the driver's side gallery.
Front oil galley plug or threaded plug too deep, blocking oiling passage? Usually an issue on passenger side, though. Devon
Oil for the driver's side lifters comes from the passenger side galley, across the front cam bearing. If the bearing is severely worn, or incorrectly installed, it can cause there to be no oil on the driver's side. Are the lifters on that side making noise? If not, run it. It can take time for the oil to go up the pushrod and across the rocker.
Maybe I can be clearer. The heads were rebuilt. The short block was not changed from previous. The cam, crank, pistons, lifters, bearings, galley plugs, timing chain and gears, etc. were not messed with. It's a 1975 455 with 1975 455 heads, stock rockers and shafts and stock pushrods. There's no oil on that side. It's completely dry. The plugs were not touched from when it ran last before the head work. The lifters were not making noise. I've got a lot of money and time into redoing the heads and a bunch of new external parts on it, I don't really want to just risk it.
I would take the distributor out and run the pump with a drill motor until you see oil. Might take a while, but given what you have said, it should oil.
Yes to what Larry said! If your lifters are quiet on that side, there IS oil going to that side, Buicks are kinda lazy getting it up thru the pushrods (especially on the left side) As long as you put lube on the pushrod ball ends and rocker arms and valve tip you’ll be fine for a few minutes till the oil makes its way up there. On my last build on my 350, lifters were quiet, but didn’t see any oil flowing down the head indicating top end oil, I revved it up a few times, and WAHLA, oil! Also remember Buicks use longer pushrods than Chevy’s, so the oil has a longer travel initially.
What Mark said. I always blow out the pushrods to be sure they are clear and then put assembly lube on the ball ends to create a seal as well as lubricate them for start-up. The drivers side never oils as well as the passenger side in any motor I've ever messed with.
I pulled the distributor this morning. Unfortunately my cordless drill died just as I was trying to prime it, then I had to leave to go to work. I'll try again tonight with the electric drill. I can hear oil so hopefully it's simple.
Ideally, you'd use a 1/2" air drill, not electric. And sure as hell not a cordless or corded 1/4 or 3/8 drill. Smaller drills are geared for higher RPM used with smaller drill bits. Typically around 2000 rpm. They'll overheat and burn up before you get oil to the rockers. A proper 1/2" drill will be geared for 400--500 rpm. That's the equivalent of 800--1000 engine RPM since the pump runs half the rpm of the crankshaft. An air drill gets colder the longer you use it, instead of electric drills getting hotter as they're worked.
The new Comp Cams pushrods I just bought and used had crap inside them. I used brake cleaner on each one and blew out with air
Upon further inspection it was clear that neither side was oiling much, although the passenger's side was getting some. With the help of my dad and brother, we ran it while manually oiling the valvetrain. The lifters were quiet. It took at least 3-4 minutes but oil reached all of the valvetrain. Schurkey was right that it would take forever with a drill trying to get oil to the rockers. Now it runs good. When I solve my carb stumble (I'm well on my way), I'll be set. Thanks all for your help.
Another indicator oil was present as the right side lifter galley feeds the mains and rods, IF there was no oil there you wouldn’t have an engine now. Buicks are in no hurry to get oil to the top end LOL. Glad it worked out!
Which is exactly why I was hesitant to "just run it" until I double checked oil flow with the priming tool.
