409 Aluminum Rodeck motor I am playing with. Bought this thing because guy could not use it as it was dry sump only. I put an external pump on this thing and dynoed motor. No problems at first but soon realized there was an issue.

There was little to no oil up on top.

So I started checking into it deeper and found they had set up the T&D shaft rockers wrong. They oil through the adjusting cups and if they are too high or too low it will block the oiling hole inside. That was completely blocking the oil through the rocker arm adjusting nuts to zero. Note: This roller cam motor.
I set them up right and then the top end was flooded with oil and it was puking oil out vacuum canister. Plus you really want the oil in the pan at RPM or things get ugly quick.
1. Yes, that means there may be a vacuum leak some where and trying resolve that. Still have issue of way too much oil up top that must also be addressed. The issue I want to talk about here is how to get right amount of oil up top with out flooding it.
2. I put .0625 restrictors in it and it is still putting a ton of oil up top. Way, way too much.
3. I am going to put a drain back hose in back of heads to get oil back in the pan quickly. (Not a bad idea on SBC as they do not drain back that good anyway.)
4. The motor had a lot of oil pressure and I am lowering it some to help.

The question here is how small of restrictors can I run and why is this thing dumping so much up top? I bought a set of .055 but do not think that will help much. Can I run .035 and if so where to find them? Why would this motor need such small restrictors to control oil?

Has anyone else had to put real small restrictors to control oil up top like that?

bruce on my latest build i had to use a standard volume pump and went with no restrictors.this was a big block but similar issues as yours.i would not restrict any smaller

I agree and do not want to restrict it any more than I have to but this is impossible. Way too much up top.

A Band Aid solution is the drain back hoses on SBC but should not be required. With as much oil as I have up top not even sure that will resolve the issue.

Have you considered restricting your pushrods?

Do those need restricted at the front, instead of the rear like an O.E. block?

Apparently they are out of business, I can't find anything for a website to check their tech notes.?

T&D said not to go any smaller than .080 restrictions because it will not get enough lubrication. Oh, it has enough oil, believe me it has plenty. That is NOT the problem.
So I will drill drain back holes and hoses in back of the heads.
I am going to do compression test or leakdown and verify overall condition of motor. Sure it is good but of course will verify and check for leaks.
Then put the .055 restricters in it and continue lowering oil pressure until I get it right.


In another semi related thought, seems to me it would be better to pull the vacuum pump line off of the center bottom of the intake manifold than the valve covers. Weld a oil separator inside to stop most of oil and allow vacuum out. There is an awful lot of oil and movement inside the valve covers spraying oil and any air movement is going to pull oil with it.

Inside the lifter valley you have more volume and the oil should separate out easier plus you have room to make an oil separator there leaving oil in the motor. Oil separator could be simple as 3 inch aluminum angle with large holes up near top to allow air and oil in and a few baffles in it with holes in bottom of the angle to allow oil out.

what i read was those are mostly dry sump,not sure about what issues that would cause.have you cranked with valve cover off.

I did start it with valve covers off and before there was no oiling at all up top. Then after I got it set up right it was spraying every where.

Since it is a dry sump block, does it have provisions for oil feed in on just the back, just the front, or both? If both you may be feeding oil to the valve train ftom both ends. In that case you would need to block the lifter gallery completely on one end and feed only from the other. I ran into that on an older dart block years ago. Oil gallery had a second set of threads inside that were smaller than outer plugs.

quote:

Originally posted by Wooley:
Since it is a dry sump block, does it have provisions for oil feed in on just the back, just the front, or both? If both you may be feeding oil to the valve train ftom both ends. In that case you would need to block the lifter gallery completely on one end and feed only from the other. I ran into that on an older dart block years ago. Oil gallery had a second set of threads inside that were smaller than outer plugs.

It has front only oil entrance. The big port in the rear is a sump pick up or drain. Appears the oil comes in from front all way to the rear of block and from there it goes up to lifters and rockers and down to mains.