389 oiling issue
 

Building a 64' 389 out of a 64' Catalina and I'm having oiling issues to the valve train. While priming the engine on the engine stand I'm not getting any oil to the rocker studs at all. I have rotated it while I prime it but no oil. My first thought was that the cam bearings were installed wrong and covered up the feed hole to each side head. I actually pulled the heads and cam and that's not it. The cam bearing hole to the feed holes to each side lines up along with the one going to the main.
The camshaft has two holes like normal on the #2 and #4 cam journal. One question is should those holes intersect with each other? Any thoughts are appreciated. I'm stumped.

If me I would change to 65-66 rockers that oil thru the pushrods.Don’t worry about the studs.Tom

Ok, no oil up top, but are you getting oil out of the lifter bore feed holes?

Remember the distributor spins counter clockwise.
But away I agree with Tom.

Just drill, tap and hex pipe plug the oil feed hole in each deck, then run the 65 and up rockers.
This set up oils things better and more evenly up top anyway.

I think even a small cup plug can be driven in each hole instead of drilling and taping, but I long ago forgot the size needed.

You need to turn the engine over very slowly to get the holes in the cam to line up properly with the holes in the cam bearings while the oil pump is supplying pressure to get oil through the hollow rocker studs. Unless you have a lot better luck than I do, neither the holes for lubricating the right nor left head will just happen to line up and never do both sides line up at the same time.

Somewhere on this forum Jack Gifford has a nice write up about this issue. I've been looking for 15 minutes and can't find it.

Found it. https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=783279

No need to plug the deck to the heads.Never have and never a issue.Tom

Thanks for all the responses. Bill nailed it with the issue I was having. I was rotating the engine too much as I primed it. The camshaft holes just weren't lining up the cam bearing feed holes to the heads. When I slowed down and only rotated the engine a couple of inches and primed it each time the holes eventually lined up and got oil to the rocker studs. Definitely a different procedure compared to the through the rocker arm oiling.

I thought that 64 was the first year with only push rod oiling. My 61 currently uses both. The only problem I see is that it may contribute some to low oil pressure at hot idle. Just to many was for pressure to get out of the galley.

It maybe that in 64 the 421 motors where the first to get push rod oiling ?

64 GTO engines with 716 heads got pushrod oiling.63 and 64 421 HOs with 716 heads also got pushrod oiling.Tom

Other than Super Duty the ‘63 & ‘64 engines both 389 and 421 equipped with the 9770716 heads were the first to have the rockers oiled through the pushrods.

The head gasket seals the unused oiling passage just fine, no need to plug it off.

Pictured below, 1964 389 & 421 blocks showing the rocker stud oiling passage.

Man that first pic has some THIN lifter bores. 2nd pic look normal.

What Tom said go to pushrod oiling. Also as he said no need to block the deck holes. Over time the oiling holes in the studs get blocked with crud that even vatting will not remove.