FWIW, I seem to recall back about 1975 when I put new lifters in my engine, I put each lifter in a can of oil and pushed down with a push rod, on the top of the lifter a few times to so the lifter could pump up with oil.

That hole on the side of the lifter is feed oil from the engine block. It doesn't matter how you clock it in the bore. Oil will flow around that recessed area around the lifter.

 

Max is right on the oil hole, should not matter.

Also on pre-oil the lifter but oil should push thru once running for a bit.
I dont remember did you check to make sure the push rods were clear, can see thru them?
If you pull the side cover do you see oil at the lifters that are dry up top?

Thing is you have to work backwards from the dry rockers to see where the oil is stopped at and then why.
Dave ----

 

I would close the engine up and drive it. A couple days later I would pull the valve cover on top of the engine back off, you will probably have oil up there now.

 

ok ill go close it up and do a test drive, thanks for all the help so far

 

By test drive... I would do a few runs up/down the driveway before I took it out on the street. Sorry, but you don't sound that attuned to mechanical issues. You should take it slow and not go too far from the driveway.

I wouldn't want you to get too far from home and find you need a tow back to the house.

I'm sure Dave F would feel bad if you got out on the open road and something bad happened.

 

He is worried about top end oiling. I have seen it take awhile before the oil made it up there. If it doesn't, it won't be a catastrophic failure. He should have pre-oiled everything when it was assembled. That will last for a little while, it won't be running dry.

On the old antique engines, some of those you had to oil the top end manually with a oil can ever so often.

 

i closed the engine up but i had a hard time starting the engine, i had removed the fuel line to get the gasket on and head cover then connected everything back up. it was odd because the engine ran fine before putting the cover back on. the engine acted differently it had a hard time staying on so i readjusted the ball linkage and reset the pin on the carb and tweaked the nut with the spring for the air fuel mix get a better idle. i think i overly loosened the nuts when i was testing the engine, i heard what sounded like a push rod clank so i shut it down. ill open it back up for inspection to validate everything is triple checked and done by the book. everything besides tweaking the rocker arm nuts is either new or cleaned and reassembled, each part is tested and is working.

ill take the head cover off, take the plugs out, and reset timing on cylinders 1 2 3 4 because i screwed up the compression preload on the rocker arm nuts and ill inspect the push rods for any damage.

yes i smear assembly lube on everything so if i have to unbolt something it just spins easy.

when i poke the camera into the cylinders ill look at the amount of depth the valves open and they open quite a bit. if i follow the instructions of make sure the push rod does not move up or down then tighten + 1/4 of an inch on the compression stroke and i watch the valves open / close they dont open that much at all. the machinist said the springs were great condition. ill just have to get some video of what im talking about because it sounds like im losing my mind. if i do 1/2 or 3/4 of a turn the valves open twice as much vs 1/4 of a turn. then again the cylinder is going to be under pressure so any opening of the valve should work right? i think its called valve lift or valve travel. ill get some video of it so you can see the difference of what i am observing. but i dont want to preload the lifters so much i bottom them out.

 

You bring back an old memory, back about 1978 at the 1/8 mile drag strip at George Air Force Base in CA, some old guys showed up with one of those style engines. Us young guys were very interested in seeing that thing run.

Phantom, that head cover, is called a "valve cover".

After removing the plugs and valve cover, you'll be adjusting the valves on 1, 2, 3 & 4 cylinders, by putting each piston, at "TDC" (top dead center), then set the valves at only that cylinder.

 

ok very good news, i figured out what i had did wrong why the engine was having issues. when i put the distributor cap back on i did not press in completely on one of the plugs (dis #3). i went up the engine making sure the plugs were in and i did the same with the distributor cap. when i installed the fuel line i remember i had pressed on one of the distributor cables and might have pulled it out then. i also had a vacuum line that was not plugged into the main manifold so it was making a loud sucking sound.

the valves required no readjustment, when i turned the engine on it ran strong and balanced but the carb was not adjusted. i readjusted the throttle linkage and set it to a lower rpm then adjusted carb mix. i took the screw until it bottomed out then did +1 1/2 turns out after the engine was warmed up. it took awhile of fliddeling to get the idle stable. i had taken the truck out and was doing some loops in my yard and the engine turned off while driving because i adjusted linkage for the engines rpm too low. so after about 10-15 attempts at learning the correct adjustment settings on the linkage + carb its running smooth. the engine starts up on first key pull, when the engine is cold i did notice it has a sine wave like pattern of engine rpm it slightly decreases then it increases and it endlessly does that for about 3-5 min then its just gone and the idle speed is constant. when i am adjusting the idle if the manifold cap is not connected to the valve cover to send that white smoke back into the air filter it does not have a stable idle. it seems i must adjust mixtures with the air filter on the carb and connect that small black line to the valve cover cap to capture that white smoke.

the brakes are working, power steering is working, lights are working. (i have not tested yet if the heater works, i know my a/c does not work has not worked in about 20 years because i just open the breaker window.

i did notice when i turn it off sometimes the carb spits extra fuel and the engine revs up as it powers down. it did that three times and then it just stopped i was not able to replicate the conditions for extra fuel squirting.

i got some video of the engine turning on as proof it works.

 

Do you have your PCV valve in the valve cover and running to the intake manifold? You should not have a lot of smoke going into the aircleaner from that hose.

 

ill have to get some photos because im not sure and get some video of the start up with no cap on. it idles really smooth with the cap on for some reason.

 

i got some video:



i have found a gasket (it came in a kit along with my exhaust manifold gasket and engine valve cover gasket for the panel that i access the hydraulic lifters. what glue do i add to that panel to glue in that gasket? could permatex ultra black work? i have a silicon based instant gasket maybe i could use that to seal but i have it on now and its leaking oil pretty badly.

that black hose from the back of the valve cover i just connected that to the carb it seems to fit there idk if its correct ill get some updated hd pictures of hose configurations.

 

Your oil leak on the do-hickey on top of the valve cover, and possibly some other oil leaks are coming from that hose not being connected going to the back of the valve cover. The hose to the back of the valve cover is the PCV valve or Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve. That needs to be hooked to manifold vacuum. Then some of the leaks may go away. You might need to re-tune the carb a little bit after you hook that up.

Is this truck a 3 speed automatic? If it is, then when you take it out on the road, it most likely is not going to want to shift very well. That metal line at the back of the engine looks like the vacuum line that goes down to the back of the automatic transmission on the pass side rear of the trans. If it is, you need to hook that up to that 3 port manifold tree on the firewall, but it looks like that is already all taken up with other hoses.

 

P.S. The large round silver thing on the driver's side of the engine driven by the belt is the A/C compressor. Your air pump is on the pass side, and the alternator is below the air pump.

 

i put a vacuum line to that metal hose at the back of the engine and connected it to a vacuum port on the carb. when i shift from park to reverse it aggressively engages, while shifting into drive is smooth, just moving past reverse is hard. ill check the fluid level to make sure im ok.

the hose from the pvc valve i connected to an extra port on the carb for vacuum and the rpms increased a bit and i re-tuned linkage and carb mixture.

i switched the location of the vacuum hose from the carb that connects into the transmission to the main vacuum manifold and it seems to shift smoother vs connecting that line directly to the carb. shifting into and out of reverse is less of a lurch forward. i also checked the fluid levels and they are fine and the fluid looks clean.