I have a 1980 ford f-250 with a 1982 351 windsor in it. I'm haveing the problem of only a few push rods oiling. We put a new oil pump because the pressure was low and we thought that was why they were not all oiling. That didnt seem to be the problem so we ran some oil with transmission fluid through it to see if it would clean anything out and still no success any other ideas what might cause this would be appreciated.


Thanks

 

You will need to remove the intake and the valve covers.
Not certain if you need help on removing the intake.
I would leave the carb on the intake and just remove the intake
and carb as one unit.

It may help to make a cardboard diagram of the intake about one foot
by one foot and then as you take out the intake bolts push them into the cardboard.

So the cardboard is like a little drawing of the intake and you push the bolts
into the cardboard to show position of each bolt.
Make sure to mark the cardboard so you know which end is the front of the motor.

1. - When removing the rockers and pushrods - - I like to use an egg-crate for the rockers and a cardboard for the pushrods. You want to re-install the rockers and pushrods in the same place as they came out of. THIS is important to try and keep things organized.

2. - Remove the rockers and pushrods - -remove the intake and the lifters are sitting right there.

When it comes time to re-assemble - -there are a number of things you need to keep in mind.

Installing the rockers is easy BUT the rockers need to be properly adjusted.

The intake needs to be torqued to a certain spec and in a special sequence or order.
Also when taking the intake down to torque specs - -you take all the bolts down to say 8 ft/lbs thengo around the sequence again - -taking them to about 14. Then do a final sequence to about 17 if I recall off hand.

SEVERAL OTHER TIPS;

1. - When you remove the intake you have what we call an Open Motor - -be carful
that things DO NOT fall into the motor. Try to keep the valley area covered with a rag while doing other things after the lifters are out.

2. - Take some GOOD puctures of everything BEFORE you start to pull apart.
3. A product like ZDDP on the cam lobes and lifters will help with break in of the new ones.
4. Don't be too suprised to find a few flatened cam lobes also. If you see wear now is the time to address a new camshaft into it.

 

If you have anything like this - time for a rebuild. If not this bad, you should remove the pushrods one at a time and blow air through them. If they are clogged, you may have fixed the problem, it they are clear, you have to do a larger tear-down.
Good luck

 

What started all of this? Is the engine ticking and you looked under the valve covers and see some where not oiling?

If you want the tranny fluid to work, you will need to run it a couple of days or a week before it will knock anything loose. I have used a can of stuff called "Rislone" with some success in breaking up cloggedand sticky lifters.

P.S. If your engine looks like the above pictures, and you run the tranny fluid and the rislone in it, be ready to unclog the oil pump pickup.

 

We ended up looking into it because there was a lack of power and we just started tearing into it. The engine under the covers looks clean when we drained the oil it wasnt bad looking either,that's when we noticed there wasnt much oil in there and some of them were dry. The engine itself was a used one when we got it awhile back like 70k miles on it but we just cannot figure this out my dad and I are both stumped.

 

I believe if you squirt a little oil on the dry rocker areas, and run some rislone or the tranny fluid through it, and drive it on a regular basis, it will break loose the junk that is clogging some of the lifters. Do some of them tick?

 

That's just it it sounds like its running fine not 1 odd sound comming from it.

 

Leftover oil is all that comes up the pushrods, just to give the rockers a little oil. I would manually put some oil up and there, and then run it with some stuff in it and see what happens.

 

U got a serious problem of oil not filling the lifters then being pumped up the push rods to the rocker arms. Let it go and you wreck a lot of dollars. As it is U need a cam probably with lifters. Maybe some damage to some of the dry rocker arms and push rods. BlUe will be the give away color. Camshaft lobes and lifters are well eaten when there is a lube question very rapidly. All it has to get thru is the case hardening and its like draging a toe on the sidewalk all day. A couple hours of this dry running inside the motors various movable working parts and U got a lot of heat damage causing junk damage to the parts affected. Many times the fasted damage is where the pushrod touches the rocker. The click/click is the area. and the damage is with the parts included with the lifter. Reducing the click/click by adjusting for mechanical lifters won't work for long.

 

The camshaft lobes are splash lubed from below. Nothing to do with the oil that is going up the pushrod.

 

Update

Looks like the lifters are ok dont seem to see any damage. Oil filter is new but only seems to be half full new oil pump not sure if that is normal.


Anyone know if there is some kind of valve where the oil filter screws in?

 

nm on the last question. As you guys can probally tell by now I'm a newbie to engines when it really comes to tearing into them. Is much oil suppose to come up around the edges of the lifters?

 

Go to the store and buy a oil pressure gauge. Hook it up temporarily in the engine compartment, the port is down near the oil filter area. See what kind of oil pressure you have.

 

If the filter is not filling up with oil/low main oil PSI, U got a problem Houston. Possibly with the pickup in the pan. U can pull the filter and crank the motor to see if it is pushing large volumn of oil. A garden hose will route it back to a jug. Simply craank it not start it. N oil is not so good. N oil is terrible. Steady gush is good.

 

Is the motor wore out? When bearings start to go in the lower end the engine will lose oil pressure because there is no resistance at the end of the journals. I would go with the oil pressure gauge because you may be looking at just a dummy light or the factory gauge and those don't really register accurate oil pressure. They are more of a yes or no reading.