Ford 860 - Very little oil to rockers Part2

Kurt J

Member
So I did some more work on this. New oil feed tube seal is installed and seats very tight (but it was originally as well). Cleaned up everything. Removed the oil feed tube and cleaned, blew air from the oil tube seal location into the block back to the oil filter - All is open and clear. I oriented the cam shaft to align the oil feed hole and blew air through - All is open and clear. New cup plugs installed in both ends of the rocker arm shaft - all was clean and clear when apart. I'm getting 40-50 psi depending on throttle position. I'm getting oil flow from the rockers to each push rod, but nothing coming out of the rocker pee holes on the valve and spring side, even when throttled up. I'm worried with no oil flow there. (See photo)
Questions:
1. I noticed the oil holes in the rocker shaft are facing straight down. Is that the correct orientation? I'm not sure if someone rebuilt this prior to me owning. Just want to verify.
2. I have read that people have partially pinched the end of the oil tube that dumps oil back to sump from the rocker shaft Opposite end from the feed side. Has anyone done this or heard of that being done?
3. There is a circumferential groove in the rocker bore to feed the push rods. However, the pee hole that feeds the valve and valve spring side is off to the side of that and has no groove to internally direct oil to it. Should there be? (See Photo)
mvphoto64663.jpg
 
Went out, dug around in storage shed, found set, pulled end one off, Lube hole in bottom of shaft, no connection from groove to hole. That only puts oil down to valve stem end so doesnt need much.
 
How much wear do you think you have on that valve train? The manual gives .007 maximum clearance between the shaft and rockers. It just says to replace any worn parts. I have a couple motors that have very low oil pressure and there's no telling how long someone ran them like that. They may not have even been getting much oil up top at all. .007 isn't all that much clearance. I would imagine if you can wiggle them and they feel very sloppy they are probably past service life.
 
Thanks Shaun and riveroadrat for the feedback. I pulled the 2 rockers off the end and measured with calipers. The max measured clearance is around .007" & .008" I can see and feel scoring on the OD of the shaft as well. I was able to find a section in my shop manual that specs the clearance to be 0.002 - 0.004". Mine are almost double that. Thanks again.
 
Ok, I will take a stab at an explanation. The extra clearance is allowing the oil film to not reach the top of the rocker. The load is all at the bottom and the gap at the top.
 
This is a delayed report out on the results/findings for others that may search this topic with the same issue.
I did have the rockers assembly rebuilt. They machined them oversize and installed bushings machined to factory spec for clearance. That did the trick. The holes in the rocker are now getting oil weeping out through them. As ErnieD mentioned, the increased clearance must have allowed the oil to spill out of the interface before reaching the holes on top. The tractor has been back in service and running great! Thanks everyone and sorry for the delayed update
 
I was just running my jubilee (134 engine) that has similar rockers with the valve cover off last light.
The pushrods had good oil flowing down them coming from the rocker oil ports, but i seen no oil dripping on the valves or springs.

Not sure how those oil ports work
 

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