Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Fresh built engine, right around 100 miles on it. Started noticing a slight valve train noise. Pulled cover to inspect/adjust the hydro lifters. Noticed pretty much every rocker is fried. Obviously lack of oil and got hot.

They are the comp roller tips.

Beehive 372lbs spring pressure and xr264hr-10 comp cam.

This was my first full engine over haul. I did the short block 4 years ago and just spent this summer finishing it. Block was sent to machine shop for cleaning and cam bearing install.

Summit racing brand roller hydro lifters

Having a tough time trying to figure out what I have causing this issue. Rear cam bearing? Lifters? Something else...? Engine has real good oil pressure, 60idle cold 30 idle hot. Pumps to 50psi with my drill and primer tool.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

https://youtu.be/kHOzaQd7UDw

here are two videos of it running and of it being primed.

im unfamiliar with how much oil i should be seeing. they arnt all even, but overall seems low to me. any help or direction will be appreciated.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Is it intake or exhaust only? They burned ones look staggered.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Last time this happened to me was the oil would not pass the lifter from the rear to the front of the engine . The lifter would not raise enough to so the oil would pass the first lifter . I had to pull all the lifters and grind a small notch left and right top part of the lifter so the oil would pass all lifters . The lifter would not come out of the bore enough and open up to the oil galley thus starving all the lifters of oil .

I do not know how the summit lifters are made but the lifter may be clearing the bore and the oil may be passing but the feed hole for the lifter may be higher and some will take a dremel and cut a small scratch to that hole down to the center of the lifter to feed oil to it .

Just a couple things to consider . Looks to be all lifters involved so most likely something like this . Those heads look pretty dry . Not all cams and lifters play together nicely .

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

also if warranty problems you might be screwed mix-n-matching brands .

i find its best to buy 1 brand for your kind of job you did so if there is a problem its easy to pin point and get covered .

have you fired it up and watched for oil out of the push rods ?

have you looked threw the push rods to verify the oil hole is open ?

psi on oil sounds a bit high to me and could be from restricted oil flow making high psi levels .

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Looks to me like there's no where near enough oil coming through....
every one I ever did had oil going everywhere when it was running....
I had one once where the machine shop didn't get the rear cam bearing in properly but it wouldn't hold oil pressure....
the lifters should all have an under cut all the way around about halfway down for the oil to pass by and on to the next lifter...
it seems to me there may be some kind of obstruction in the oil passage?
SBC motors rarely have oiling problems...I wouldn't run it anymore until I discovered the problem....good luck with it.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

oil galley plug come loose?

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Regarding your video, you should be getting a LOT more oil to the top of the motor through the push rods. I didn't see hardly any coming up. That thing should squirt oil all over your engine bay.

You're going to have to pull the intake at a minimum to have a look at your lifters.

-klb

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Every SBC I have ran without the valve covers in place made a mess all over the inner fenders and sometimes farther. Mostly stock motors with stock oil pumps.

If my 43 year old OEM oil gauge is reading correctly, your oil pressure seems fine. Mine runs near full scale running down the road and 1/2 scale idle hot.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Thanks guys. Few things I will do tonight. I will pull the intake off and see what’s going on with the lifters. Not totally sure what to be looking for. I will also pull the timing cover to inspect the galley plugs, that’s a possibility too. I’ll report back

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

That was my first thought, but other than reading the dire warnings about being careful with the plugs (or replacing them with screw-ins), I have no direct experience with having that issue.

And gosh, that's a high spring pressure, too!

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

I agree that oil pressure is usually a pretty good indicator, but it's not perfect.

When I bought my truck it had a strong 30-40 psi oil pressure at idle. But the previous rebuilder put *standard* bearings on *0.010 under* rod journals. So it had a bit of rod noise. I fixed all that when I rebuilt it.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

It's a roller cam methinks, which accounts for that!

-klb

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Inspected the fronts lifter plugs. Still there and not leaking. The rear I can’t see but they are threaded and sealed. Plus it’s not leaking oil back there.

You can see oil leaking from the front cam bearing. Is that normal?the other video is of the lifter galley. Looks like quite a bit of oil comes up around the primer tool and then some coming around the lifters/ lifter bore? How does all of this look? Ideas on where to go next?

https://youtu.be/zRjTL3bHyrs
https://youtu.be/KRE-zuX53cw

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

There is an oil gally plug under tbe reear main cap was it installed? Are the push roods have holes in them? My 350 i had had oil squirtkng out of the rockers and making a mess every where

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

It does look like the oil may be flowing past the lifters but not in the lifters . Take one out and take a picture and lets see how it is made . Could be the oil hole to feed the lifter is not dropping in the bore enough , if not in the center section of the lifter . We need to see if the lifter already has the relief to the bore already made into it to feed the lifter .

The oil band on the lifter may not be correct for the base circle on the cam .

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Oil flow from around the cam bearings is correct....
like the previous post...I suspect something is going on with the lifters themselves....
anymore.....just because something is "new".....doesn't always mean that it's manufactured correctly...

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Pulled a lifter out took some pictures

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Went to Summit and found your lifter there and did some reading.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/s...make/chevrolet

April 2018:
I ordered 12 for a V6, After hours of t-shooting, I could never get them to pass oil to the rocker arm, I returned for a refund no questions asked, love these guys. I do have to say they are made better than OEM but no idea what is going on with these 12. I will be back either way. Summit is top notch.

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

yea im going to say a bad set of lifters

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

This is a good read:

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com...rection.11398/

-klb

Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Did you notice any issues when you “pre-oiled” the engine before you fired it up for the first time. Most likely this would of been caught at that time and fixed prior to running the engine for any length of time.
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Do you think the previous builder checked the clearances ? How in the world could anyone put “STD” bearings on 010 crank. Makes no sense. Did he put gear lube 80 w in it to get oil pressure or gear oil pressure ? Not sure if I would put him in the same sentence as rebuilder. Lol!!!!
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Re: Burnt up rockers on sbc
 

Possibly, was not familiar I guess. It primed oil to all the rockers for the pre oil. I did it for quite some time. I can admit I thought it was good. It’s my first full engine build. I did take my time, bought all proper tools and researched as much as I could before doing anything. I’m a motorcycle tech by trade and quite familiar with anything mechanical. But like most people we have to learn the hard way, and if I missed that in the pre oiling at least I noticed some noise happing after the 100 miles to inspect. Now to figure out what’s going on.