Heard bad noises and pulled the rocker cover off. Found this broken shaft support (appears to be an old break) and severe galling on the new shaft. Don't know what happened yet as the engine was primed before run in and had good oil flow. In fact it had 45 pounds the day I took it apart. The oil was strained and fortunately there is no metal in it. This a 440 mile motor. I'll report back when we get it sorted out.

 

Does the 223 rocker shaft get oiled by a tube off the #3 cam journal.If so, are there new cam bearings recently installed? If its like a 262 the 3rd bearing is different then the other three. good luck and keep us posted.

 

Those stands can be easily cracked/broken when removing/installing a shaft, ask me how I know.. The galling looks like a lack of oil. No oil coming up through the tube for some reason. You put an O Ring on the tube where it goes into the block?

 

Yes to both of you. When we assembled the engine we drove the oil pump with a drill to make sure we got oil up in the shaft. Also the bearings were plasti gauged to ensure proper clearances. Its a mystery right now.

 

If you still need parts there is a new rocker assy. on ebay for 135.oo I got one not long ago and they are nice quality. ITs his last one.There looks to be alot of metal missing from that shaft,lack of oil regardless why the stand broke. The manual states to be sure the OIL HOLES IN THE SHAFT ARE FACING DOWNWARD.Lack of oil -position #3 cam bearing,o-ring or tube leakage,obstruction.What is the gauge reading?maybe enough to feed bearings and not enough volume to saturate the top end.Keep us posted. Thanks

 

It was installed correctly as per manual and we had 45 pounds of pressure.

 

P38...I know for a fact Dennis Carpenter carries this part as I had to replace one in my 223 engine too. Luckily mine was just cracked.

 

They did! - I took the last 2 NOS they had....