Rebuilt Head, No Oil Flowing

Matthew68

Well-known member
HELP!

Fresh Australian in-line 6 cylinder head rebuild and went to fire up today for the first time. The issue we ran into was oil is not flowing to the head. I’m getting 40-45 psi pressure on the mechanical gauge, but we were unable to visualize any oil flowing. We turned the engine over for quite some time without the coil to dizzy wire hooked up to prime until we got good pressure. Then connected the wire and fired. Let it run for 5 seconds or so, no oil moving. Removed the front rocker pedestal bolt (circled below) and nothing. Also switched the keyed plug to one side to see if we could visualize and nothing still. Pressure when running was in the 40s.

Never had this issue with the previous head. Stock block, it was not touched. New rocker shaft, all pedestals and parts were put through the cleaner so nothing is plugged up. I put 4.5 quarts of straight 30W with zinc additive. Head gasket is on correctly, had two different sets of eyes on it.

Not sure where to go from here!! So frustrating!!
 
If the head was milled.
There is an oil transfer slot in the head surface. It directs the oil from the lr oil galley right above the sender to the head surface. If the transfer slot is not wide enough you will get no oil to the rear rocker shaft pedestal. Did you install the correct bolt in the rear rocker arm stand?? It is narrowed to let oil to the shaft.
 
wsa111":3mtxf08j said:
If the head was milled.
There is an oil transfer slot in the head surface. It directs the oil from the lr oil galley right above the sender to the head surface. If the transfer slot is not wide enough you will get no oil to the rear rocker shaft pedestal. Did you install the correct bolt in the rear rocker arm stand?? It is narrowed to let oil to the shaft.

The head was milled. I did not pay any attention to which bolt I used on the rocker pedestals, I’ll have to check those tomorrow.

I did not widen any slots in the head of the block.
 
It may take awhile.. The oil has to go from the oil galley down to the rear main bearing over the slot in the bearing and up a hole to the cam bearing around the groove in the cam out a hole up to the block deck, over to the drivers rear head bolt by way of the kidney notch in the gasket and head , up around the head bolt hole to an intersecting passage to the rear shaft pedestal bolt boss, around pedestal bolt to the shaft...
If you are confident that you lubed the rocker and all points well, I would run it a little longer...30 WT is thick if it is cold out.
If still no oil something along that crazy oil path is blocked...
 
The stock head bolts neck down allowing oil flow up and around that drivers rear head bolt and if studs are used there it can slow flow to the pedestal , like the necked down pedestal bolt that Bill typed about.
Unless you are using a stock steel shim gasket I do not think that milling the head is a problem, yes making the head slot deeper is the right thing to do but, if you think about it if you mill the head 70 and used a 40 thicker gasket is the passage that much smaller.
 
drag-200stang":2yk9ih5f said:
The stock head bolts neck down allowing oil flow up and around that drivers rear head bolt and if studs are used there it can slow flow to the pedestal , like the necked down pedestal bolt that Bill typed about.
Unless you are using a stock steel shim gasket I do not think that milling the head is a problem, yes making the head slot deeper is the right thing to do but, if you think about it if you mill the head 70 and used a 40 thicker gasket is the passage that much smaller.

I am using studs. Do I need to put a notch in that driver rear stud? What exactly is different about the rear most pedestal bolt, is it thinner?
 
Pull the rear head bolt to see if you're at least getting oil into the head. If so, take out the rear rocker bolt. And see if it has oil there. Something may be blocked somewhere and you should find out if its in the block or head
 
Nothing to do with head bolts or studs. The oil to the head is right above the oil sender on the LR of the block.
One thing you could do is remove the entire rocker arm assy.
Remove the oil sender.
Blow compressed air into the oil passage on the LS of the removed pedestal bolt removed & see if air comes out the oil sender opening.
If it does not pull the head. The oil transfer slot is blocking oil to the head.
 
Matthew68":n8hfn4bh said:
drag-200stang":n8hfn4bh said:
The stock head bolts neck down allowing oil flow up and around that drivers rear head bolt and if studs are used there it can slow flow to the pedestal , like the necked down pedestal bolt that Bill typed about.
Unless you are using a stock steel shim gasket I do not think that milling the head is a problem, yes making the head slot deeper is the right thing to do but, if you think about it if you mill the head 70 and used a 40 thicker gasket is the passage that much smaller.

I am using studs. Do I need to put a notch in that driver rear stud? What exactly is different about the rear most pedestal bolt, is it thinner?
The stud may be tight to the intersecting hole to the pedestal maybe try turning it 180 looser, so it is different...It would take careful grinding at the right place to mod the stud...With a clean head a stud should not be a problem...Could replace stud with bolt to test.
Yes to pedestal bolt is thinner just below the head to the threads...All bolts where changed to the necked down style at some point not sure what you have...No washers under the pedestal right...
If you pull the last bolt to check, make sure that turn the crank so the #6 valves are closed first...fill the shaft with oil thru the bolt hole and replace the bolt and try a little longer...At this point I think that 5 seconds is not long enough, but do not over do it.
Let us know what u find.
 
Thanks, I’ll check all the bolts and remove the assembly. A couple dumb questions while I have the assembly off:

1. The front pedestal (front of car) is the larger pedestal with the tab. I have it in the correct location, right? Or does that one go at the back?

2. The shaft is new. Do the oiling holes in the shaft face up, or down?
 
Matthew68":2isl8g5u said:
Thanks, I’ll check all the bolts and remove the assembly. A couple dumb questions while I have the assembly off:

1. The front pedestal (front of car) is the larger pedestal with the tab. I have it in the correct location, right? Or does that one go at the back?

2. The shaft is new. Do the oiling holes in the shaft face up, or down?
1. It goes on the front.
2.The holes in the shaft goes down.
That drivers rear head bolt is blind and no sealer is needed there and sealer could block a compromised head oil flow notch,milling ,bad casting etc.
It is possible to force the gasket on wrong and it will block flow but you have to try, It has been done before. :unsure:
 
drag-200stang":2dveryqy said:
Matthew68":2dveryqy said:
Thanks, I’ll check all the bolts and remove the assembly. A couple dumb questions while I have the assembly off:

1. The front pedestal (front of car) is the larger pedestal with the tab. I have it in the correct location, right? Or does that one go at the back?

2. The shaft is new. Do the oiling holes in the shaft face up, or down?
!. It goes on the front.
2. Not 100% sure but I have been putting them down, makes sense to me.
That drivers rear head bolt is blind and no sealer is needed there and sealer could block a compromised head oil flow notch,milling ,bad casting etc.
It is possible to force the gasket on wrong and it will block flow but you have to try, It has been done before. :unsure:

Thanks. I’m pretty sure I put them facing down. I did use thread sealer on all studs. Should I pull that stud and remove the sealer and reinstall?
 
I checked the previous bolts that were in the pedestals, they all measure exactly the same. 3/8” that taper down to 21/64”. All the same size.

What’s supposed to be the smaller bolt size?
 
Is the rocker arm shaft assembled right? A head shop put mine back together with the front and rear rocker shaft pedestals switched around, which would have resulted in no oil to the rockers, I caught it before final assembly.

Externally all my pedestals are visually the same on my '65 block, one is internally cut/drilled for oil passage to the rockers, all pedestal bolt are the same on mine.

Only head bolt that should have any sealer on it is the passenger side front, it is the only head bolt that passes into the coolant passage.
 
frozenrabbit":jhlpyrd8 said:
Is the rocker arm shaft assembled right? A head shop put mine back together with the front and rear rocker shaft pedestals switched around, which would have resulted in no oil to the rockers, I caught it before final assembly. Externally all my pedestals are visually the same, one is cut for oil passage to the rockers.

Later years have a head bolt on the driver side rear that has an additional taper on the bolt for oil flow.

Only head bolt that should have any sealer on it is the passenger side front, it is the only head bolt that passes into the coolant passages.

I assembled it myself. I have the key/tabbed pedestal in the front (1st cyl), but otherwise I didn't pay any attention to the other rocker pedestals. I checked another set I have, they all look identical when looking from the bottom. How do you tell the difference?
 
Just looked over my rocker assembly. You referring to key/tabbed pedestal was throwing me off.

The front pedestal has an overflow/return passage that lets oil back out of the rocker shaft. All other pedestals are the same, with a slightly squared off hole.

I'd say the sealant on the driver's side rear head bolt and that oil passage is your issue.
 
frozenrabbit":286l26yv said:
Just looked over my rocker assembly. You referring to key/tabbed pedestal was throwing me off.

The front pedestal has an overflow/return passage that lets oil back out of the rocker shaft. All other pedestals are the same, with a slightly squared off hole.

I'd say the sealant on the driver's side rear head bolt and that oil passage is your issue.

Sorry, I didn't know the technical term to it. Ok, it sounds like we're all set. The only thing I'm still confused on is where is this different bolt? Every one of mine (I have two different sets of bolts), are all identical....
 
All the pedestal bolts are the same size.

Are you referring to the oil passage head bolt? Early sixes head bolts were all the same. Late 60's, maybe early 70's, Ford put a tapered shank bolt in the oil passage. This is the rear driver's side head bolt.
 
Back
Top