Typical Oiling Modifications

[sanborn]

sadsack, let's think about what we want to do for a minute. You are concerned about putting too much oil to the topside-You want to reduce oil flow to the top! Right? What you are really wanting to do is keep more oil down at the crankshaft! Right?

If you restrict oil between the camshaft and cylinder head-what you will find is you are still losing most of the oil around the camshaft bearings. An alternative is to tap the 1/4" passage from the crankshaft main bearing area up to the camshaft bearing with a 5/16" NC thread. Then just drill a 5/16" set screw with a 1/8" size drill, and screw the set screw up into the block. That reduces the amount of oil up to the cam- and on up to the rockers.

What I prefer to do is to feed the oil to the rocker shafts externally and reduce the amount of oil up to the camshaft with a 1/16" hole in the set screw!

[sadsack]

Sanborn, thanks for the reply. I hear ya, sounds better to me. So if I'm losin' oil at the cam bearings I should reduce all of the cam feeds to .125?

[sanborn]

Generally, you can restrict the oil flow to the cam bearings with a 1/8" restrictor. You can probably use a smaller hole in the #1, #3 and #5 bearings than even 1/8". Only the #2 and #4 bearings need a 1/8" hole because they are the only cam bearings that oil the rocker shafts.

BUT, BUT, BUT- YOU MUST GET ADEQUATE OIL TO THE ROCKER SHAFTS!!!!!!

If you don't get enough oil to them, you got a big problem! This is a case where your engine "tells" you what it needs! The exact size depends on what pump you have, how good your oil passages are, your RPM range, which rockers you are using, etc. And, the best way to tell is to prepare a valve cover "with a view". That is a valve cover with a cut out top so you can actually see how well the rockers are oiling while the engine is running. Hint----- Don't make the cut out too large or else your headers might get covered with oil.

[sadsack]

The revised plan is, Front oil it on the inside,(lifter galley) plumb the left and right passages together, and block the passage from the front main rearing to the left passage. I'm using a mellings m72hv pump, solid lifters, and stock iron adj. rockers. I wasn't going to enlarge passages, only chase them to make sure they are drilled right and clear,(once again my concern is emptying the pan) and 1/8" restricters in the cam feed holes. Maybe this is overkill for a motor the might see 6500 rpm, but I like it and the price is right. Do you think I should enlarge the passages? Anyway, thanks again

[agedaddy]

Well when I first saw the restrictions to the top end I GOT SCARED. I have been there and it causes problems. Then I saw Sanborn's reply to make sure the rockers have enough oil. I'M FEELING MUCH BETTER NOW!!! Althogh I still have never seen a need to restrict the oil any where on my Mopars I also know that I have not seen everything and don't have Sanborn's experience.
I have found for me if I do anything away from the Chrysler Engine Book, I have problems. I have built a 640 hp alcohol motor with a dry sump and several 550 hp wet sump alcohol motors and a few 2bbl gas motors. RPM's range from 6500 to 8200 and my problems only occur when I try to out smart the good book. Well that wouldn't be THE GOOD BOOK, but the good engine book by Chrysler.

[AVENGER29]

In our class, we are not allowed remote filters or relocated filters, therefore where would we plumb the oil line from the top going thru the rear bulkhead, since we cannot go to a tee offline from remote filter, where do you suggest we go to??
Thanks

Dodge 29

[I8URACING]

I have a couple of questions.

On a stock block it looks like I should be feeding the front of the main oil galley and getting oil for the left side lifters from the same place. Should I be tapping in 2 different places?

Could someone explain why in the mopar oval track book they talk about putting tubes in the left side oil galley? What are they accomplishing?

Thanks, Al

[AVENGER29]

Their restricting the flow of oil to the left side of engine, ok on solid or roller lifters, not ok on hydraulic for obvious reasons. where cam plate bolt on, we drill the left side hole or right side if looking at front of block, 5/8 if I remember(need to look at my notes) and insert a 1/2 freeze plug inside into the tube behind the front of the block,so as to eliminate oil flow to left side head. and then insert 5/8 plug in front of block to close hole. if running hydraulic then need to run and external line from the boss on left side above lifter galley and drill and install line thru the rear of the block using a bulkhead fitting.....to a secondary line at filter, using an adapter
by restricting oil to the left head, increased oil to the rod bearings, the weak link in this engine,

now, if i may need to know where to run that line if your not allowed remote filter and filter must mount in stock location, where do we draw oil from to the oil left gallery???????

[Billydelrio]

This is still one of the best threads on the entire internet.
Thanks again Sanborn

[sanborn]

Thank you for the kind words!

When I started to work with Mopars many years ago, I tried to find out as much info as I could. To my frustration, the so called "experts" wouldn't tell me anything. All they wanted to do was sell me parts or their "black magic"! Most of the experts could easily be described as #*#*, *#*# or even worse, ********!. And many of these "experts" turned potential Mopar racers into Ford and GM racers.

I vowed then to always try to help fellow racers as much as I can. And I hope I have been true to my pledge.

I will always help a racer keep his engine together and generally how to make it run---although that last 5-7% of performance is usually found by experimment, trial/error, mistakes, etc.

Sometimes I can be pretty blunt but I guess that comes with age/ experience.

[I8URACING]

I have been working on the oiling mods my 318. We tubed the block with 1/2" copper tube. Since I am oiling through the push rod we had to put oil hole into the tube. We chose to go with 0.125". Is that too big, too small, or just right?

We tapped for a 1/4" pipe at the front of the galley so we are getting oil to both ends of the galley. This meant that the cross over tube couldn't be placed there. So we tapped for 1/8" pipe in the center of both galleys. Was that the best spot or should we have picked another spot to tap into the right side galley?

We also had to make a special threaded plug for the front of the right side galley. Mopar says to tap the front and back for 1/2" pipe plugs. We were able to make 3/8" pipe plugs work but the front plug had to be shortened because it has to be flush but not block the front main oil port.

[AVENGER29]

I'm confused, if you are oiling thru the push rods, why are you drilling a hole in tube. We do not use this method, we drill left front hole at cam to 3/4's( doing this from memory, dont have my notes at work) then we insert a small freeze plug and block gallery behind, then we insert a freeze plug to plug the hole we just drilled bigger.
We run oil from right rear to left front oil gallery, we do not go externally to the block, we use 1/4 npt fitting at the top inside intake valley, use soft pliable copper tubing to plumb. Are you running solid or hydraulic cam, with solid we dont oil left top of engine, yes it will wear parts, but we dont care, it doesnt wear enough to be an issue, on a daily driver it could be......the rocker shaft is oil thru a different gallery....I'm not sure what you are doing, supply more info, is this block that was tube and now your trying to go back to run hydraulic???

Dodge29