so if i'm going to all the trouble of drilling passages, and running a bypass line (haven't decided if i am or not), are the grooved bearings a good idea? and how have you guys run bypass lines in the past? i see a few options, first i could just connect the rearends of the lifter galleys at the rear, in a U-shaped fashion, 2nd, i could run an external line from the sending unit hole to the rear driver side (i'm going to at least run my oil pressure guage from the rear of the galley) or 3rd, why couldn't i just tap two holes in the lifter galleys in the valley, between two lifter bores? then run a 5" piece of hose/pipe between them, and not have to worry about leaks? keep it all under the intake manifold. 4th, i don't think it's feasible, but behind where the cam gear goes, there's a hollowed out spot, and if ya could get a right-angle drill bit in there, you could tap into the side of the galleys, and do the crossover right in there, just like in the rear. again, leaks wouldn't matter, other than lost oil pressure. ok, maybe i'm getting carried away, but that's where all the fun is :grin: tell me why these won't work.
Hi Tim, Basicly a by-pass line will do nothing for the real root cause of the problem and that's a melted front cam bearing that closes off the passage in the front cam journal which is how the driver's side gallery receives it's oil. After this happens is when you'll start hearing those lifters on that side chattering and telling you about it! You can avoid all these above mentioned "methods" by just installing TA grooved cam bearings. Plus the fact that with the TA bearings you are now also able to oil the cam journals at the 3-4 O'clock position which immediately takes the pressurized oil to the high load portion of the bearing where it will do the most good. The stock bearings oil from the 9 O'clock position which takes the oil to the no-load portion of the bearing. When a fix is as easy and as mechanically/engineeringly sound as the one described above, it's just a waste of time doing these other things. JMHO:TU: Go here http://www.buickperformance.com/Oilmods.htm for detailed pic's and instructions for installing a rear pressure point for your gauge hook-up. Hope this helps.....
ok, maybe i don't understand. i thought the real root cause of the problem was that the driverside lifter galley is fed through the film surface of the front cam bearing..... not much bandwidth there, so not much flow. so the grooved cam bearings prevent melt-out.... that's good to know. hadn't considered that. but even with the grooved bearings, would it be a good idea to do a simple crossover between the galleys to even out the flow? i'm probably not going to do any of this to my first engine, but i really want to understand what's going on in there.
In the oil passage mod article, is it a good idea to drill all the way through the bearing surface in the cam journal?http://www.buickperformance.com/oilflow.htm
If you do not drill all the way through the cam journal all the way to the main feel galley, you really have not gained anything here. The oil is fed from the lifter galley, and if that hole is still only 1/4 inch or 5/16 inch, then it does not matter how big the passage is after that point, since in effect it will be being fed from a smaller hole. The drill bit I use is a 23/64 bit in lieu of a 3/8. There is not alot of meat around the cam journal area, so the slightly smaller bit leaves more metal there. The 23/64 is actually 2 sizes larger than the stock 5/16, and when it comes to % of increase for oil flow , that is quite a bit. After this modification, you definately need to use the fully grooved cam bearings, not because of the full groove, but rather because they are wider than the stock #2,3,4,5 bearings and will seal up the oil passage form the now larger slot going through the cam journal. Jim Burek P.A.E. ENTERPRISES
Gang, I just requested that George edit in these changes (above) to the Oiling Mods article on the BPC http://www.buickperformance.com/oilflow.htm I wrote that article several years ago and have been called on the discrepancies repeatedly. I have no explanation why it's taken me so long to upgrade the article. My apologies for any confusion this has caused. Unless there are other changes needed on the article (speak up, please) it should be a good source for the basics of these modifications. Thanks for understanding.
Don't forget that you need to drill all the way through the cam bearing area all the way into the lifter galley. Jim Burek
