Shouldn't these be oily?

I had good oil pressure, but it doesn't appear the valves were getting oiled well?


Just trying to deduce why the Dauntless had it's catastrophic failure...

 

not neccesarily
not a lot of oil goes to the rockers to begin with

 

and
I'll be the camshaft broke and started the self destruct process
at least, that's my guess

 

Have you run the engine with the covers off? Can you see oil coming up through the tiny hole in rocker arms?

 

re-read the first post... I am trying to deduct the origin of the catastrophic failure.

 

I have tore down a lot of engines and have never seen one where the inside of the valve covers are dry like that. I don't think there was any oil going to the top end. Would you have any pics of the cam bearings?

 

Buick motors are not Chevy or Ford small blocks, you can run these engines at several thousand rpm with the valve covers removed and never get oil on the fenders let alone anywhere else. They oil very little on the top end and do not need alot by design. That being said there should have been at least a haze of oil on the bottom of the covers not from splashing or anything but more from just having it circulate and being in an almost gaseous state in the engine. The one with the fill hole looks about right the other one is to dry.

 

Man, every time I see those broken parts photos it gives me the heebie jeebies.

 

If you look REALLY close the one pushrod is bent 90* and the other almost 90*...

I can't wait till my exam is over with so I can put it on the engine stand to get some better pics of the cam and crank, and remove them.

I will lay all the broken stuff out on a table for a photoshoot when I get it on the stand...

It sux but I cannot do anything about it for now.

 

as said these engines dont get alot of top end lube,but it does look dry to me,were the bent push rods from the same cylinder tha the broken rod came from? still dont think any of this caused the rod to break,not torqued right,loss of oil psi,cracked rod bearing bolt or a fractured rod....... are the only things that come to mind at this stage,if the push rods were on the same cyl as the rod it could have come up and smacked them,but hard enough to bend push rods,split lifters and break the cam,it is therotical

 

this just came to mind as it happened to me,when i rebuilt my 225 years ago,the torque spec was wrong,cant rember what book i was using..... but it was a name brand book such as chiltons,fortunatley i rung the rod bolt off when assembling,had it not snapped what would have happened????? what we are seeing now??? and didnt you say it was suposed to be a fairly recent rebuild?????? just thinking

 

I am diffently not a expert on these, but a couple of thoughts that come to me are: I have never seen a valve cover like that one that not only has no oil on it, but is even rusted bad. I would think that even just the oil vapors from the bottom would keep a little oil film on the cover. Because of this, I have to think that there was not oil getting up to that side. Another thought is (and I could be wrong on this), just because you had good oil press only means that the crank, bearing etc. were not worn bad enough to drop the press. Remember that the press gage is just after the oil filter and if there are worn parts, then the oil press. drops because there is not the tight fittings to hold back the oil and allow the press to built up. On the other had, if a passage to the upper section is blocked and not letting any oil up there, this will acturaly make the oil pressure higher. In other words sometimes you can't go by the press. to know that everything is getting oiled right. Hope this all makes sense. If I am wrong, I hope somebody with more know how pipes in.
Luck
Mike

 

Ouch!

 

Is that silicone (RTV) on the pan gasket? If so, there might be a booger of that stuff stuck in an oil passage somewhere that caused oil starvation to something. It's happened before.

 

Was there oil on top of the heads when you removed the valve cover?

 

I pulled the oil pan off the F-head that's going in my '55 so I could do a rear main (and after inspection probably bearings)...I cleaned out the oil pickup with a coat hanger, and pulled a bunch of blue goop chunks out . Not enough to clog and starve it fortunatly. Wouldn't want to get chunkies in the top end...at least the pickup screen kept them from going anywhere in mine.