Dart Little M sportsman top end oiling issue SBC

[Ed Wright]

Takes me longer than 30 seconds of priming a new assembly to get oil out of the rockers. Thought something was wrong first time.

[joespanova]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Takes me longer than 30 seconds of priming a new assembly to get oil out of the rockers. Thought something was wrong first time.

If it takes long to prime ONCE , it'll always be slow to get up there?

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by joespanova

If it takes long to prime ONCE , it'll always be slow to get up there?

Nope. All the oil galleys won't be full of air after initial prime. My rockers oil right away on start ups after primed once.

[Mike Semeniuk]

Sometimes after being machined , washed and dryed, it takes quite a while to get oil to all rockers. Helps if engine is rotated 45-90degrees 8 or more times while priming. That's been my experience anyway ( lifter clearance set)

[joespanova]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Nope. All the oil galleys won't be full of air after initial prime. My rockers oil right away on start ups after primed once.

So , can I assume everyone ground the small groove in to the lifter bodies?

[Alan Nyhus]

As suggested, try rotating the engine 45-90 degrees and prime for a good minute at each rotation. Repeat 8-10 times. Might not hurt to pull the intake, rockers and push rods to verify that oil comes out the top of the lifter. 16 pushrods can hold a lot of air.

Let us know what you find. -Al

[Matt S]

I had the same concerns when I primed my Little M for the first time after it was built. It took MINUTES of spinning the drill, and rotating the motor 90 degrees, but eventually, I got oil from all 16 rockers.

[Mike Taylor 3601]

I would say cut lifters,just takes small groove,I use 1/8 die grinder or a thin cut off wheel,you just need a few thousands deep from oil band to oil hole,another thing to look at if you have small base circle cam is to make sure oil band is lined up with oil galley,if band is below oil galley only time it can oil is when lifter up on lift,if that is the case you can cut grooves or cut chamfer on oil band so it matches up to oil galley when lifter is on base circle.
SBC should oil all rockers without having to rotate engine.
Any mods you do,do carefully doesn't take much to go from no oil to flood.
Mike Taylor 3601

[pmrphil]

Have a little patience - it always takes longer than 30 seconds to prime an SBC - think of the volume of oil to fill all the passages, lifters, and pushrods. The only oil to go up the pushrods has to come AROUND the lifter, it may take a while. Prime on.

[Ed Wright]

I cut my intake lifters like Mike mentioned, to add oil up those pushrods. I was burning ends off some intake pushrods, at the rockers. Those tiny grooves stopped that.