Thread: Noisy tappets after 3.5 rebuild, oil flow?

Originally Posted by PLR

The oil goes from the pump to the cam first then to the lifter/tappet gallery it then goes up through the block to the front post base on each head .

This is the only feed to the over head gear , one gallery on each side and only one feed to each side .

The oil then makes its way up through the pedistal via the bolt slot ( area around the bolt ) it then makes its way inside the rocker shaft and lubs it all from inside .

So the rocker shaft is oil filled .

You would have noticed two oil holes in the heads on the gasket face and another two , one in each end pedistal post base ( on the head ) .

Only one , the front has oil flowing through it the rear one is blanked at the block gasket surface .

If you take the rocker shafts off and understand that the only holes that matter are the front two on the pedistal post bases ( on the head ) .

Cheers

Thanks for all that information (you can never know too much about something ). All makes sense and i understand the system better now. Thank you.

A few q's to really clear things up, if you don't mind:
1. "The oil goes from the pump to the cam"
Does this mean my cam is being lubed at the moment even though the tappets are not (cos they're lubed from above).

2. Am i correct in saying: The heads can go on either side as they have front and rear oil holes, as do the posts. The head gasket can go on either side and upsidedown (they were symetrical and no "top" marking). The only thing handed is the rocker shaft, which picks up the front oil hole. Correct? Now, the shafts are marked with a notch (as shown in a link in a previous post). Right side (drivers side) has the notch to the front, and the left side has the notch to the rear. Does this mean that the shafts are physically different? To put it another way, the r/h shaft picks up the oil from the notched end (the front) and the l/h shaft picks up the oil from the non-notched end (the front). This seems strange to me because if the shafts are physically different, why aren't both notches at the front?

Hope this makes some sort of sense to you. Let me know if it doesn't, and i'll try to reword it .

Thanks again...

Does this help



Duane

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Thanks for all that information (you can never know too much about something ). All makes sense and i understand the system better now. Thank you.

A few q's to really clear things up, if you don't mind:
1. "The oil goes from the pump to the cam"
Does this mean my cam is being lubed at the moment even though the tappets are not (cos they're lubed from above).

2. Am i correct in saying: The heads can go on either side as they have front and rear oil holes, as do the posts. The head gasket can go on either side and upsidedown (they were symetrical and no "top" marking). The only thing handed is the rocker shaft, which picks up the front oil hole. Correct? Now, the shafts are marked with a notch (as shown in a link in a previous post). Right side (drivers side) has the notch to the front, and the left side has the notch to the rear. Does this mean that the shafts are physically different? To put it another way, the r/h shaft picks up the oil from the notched end (the front) and the l/h shaft picks up the oil from the non-notched end (the front). This seems strange to me because if the shafts are physically different, why aren't both notches at the front?

Hope this makes some sort of sense to you. Let me know if it doesn't, and i'll try to reword it .

Thanks again...

G`day Pete

The cam gets oil first because it`s lower but is fed by the same gallery , the one the tappets sit in .

The same gallery also feed the mains .

If you look at djam1s picture , you`ll see the two horizontal gallerys either side of and above the cam , this is the main feed for everything .

If the tappets aren`t getting oil neither will the other bits but you said after running the tappets were quieter and the only thing that will do that is oil .

Yes , the heads can go either side and probably back to front but inlet and exhaust bolt up may be not great .

The gaskets will fit either way but not upside down because of the top tabs on the inlet side , if up side down the tabs would stick out on the exhaust side .

The shafts are like a reservoir they go a particular way so that the lub hole for the rocker arms is at a higher rather than lower point or the other way around but whatever the manual says , haven`t actually looked into the reason why .

The way the shafts go has no relevance to it getting oil because the oil comes up inside the same hole/shaft as the bolt and half way up enters the shaft .

The rocker arms are left and right handed only because the arm and rubbing pads are to the left or right to make correct contact , there are later rocker arms that are not handed and can be used anywhere .


Unless you have a blockage in the gallerys , if its got oil pressure and your oil light and tappets quietening says you have the only thing i can think of is ............ P76 4.4 Leyland head gaskets are similar to 3.5 Rover gaskets other than they don`t have the oil holes in them because the 4.4 lubes through the pushrods like an inline 6 Holden .

The wire down the hole earlier will tell this .

If somehow you have been given a pair of these there is no way oil can get to the rocker gear but every thing belew the heads will still get lube .

I `ve got some rocker gear in the shed i`ll have a look at tomorrow and if i see anything i`ll let you know .

Cheers

I had this panic when I rebuilt my 3.5 three years ago.

My heart palpitations were caused by squeaking pushrods for the first minutes of use. As you might imagine, initially I had no idea what the noise could be. The cam rotates the lifters which rotate the pushrods... which were squeaking on the rocker arms.

I had been v-e-r-y careful on reassembly, followed everything in the book to the letter, listened to advice, primed the pump with vaseline, soaked the lifters, checked everything twice if not three times, etc etc.

When I took the rocker covers off there was not much oil sitting there as per your experience. I venture to suggest this is normal, as long as there is some weeping out when you run the motor.

Lovemyv8county
I agree completely I honestly thought that I could hear the nice new engine I put together very carefully destroying itself.
But as I took the instructions of running the cam in religiously I sucked it up and kept it running 15 mins later all was Ok but not confidence inspiring now 10000 ks later it couldnt be better.
BullDog Im not going to tell you to do the same as I cant hear it and I would hate to see you damage it.
All I can say is that I found it very hard to run it at 1500-2000 rpm for 20 minutes or so with the noise that it was making.

Originally Posted by LoveMyV8County

I had this panic when I rebuilt my 3.5 three years ago.

My heart palpitations were caused by squeaking pushrods for the first minutes of use. As you might imagine, initially I had no idea what the noise could be. The cam rotates the lifters which rotate the pushrods... which were squeaking on the rocker arms.

I had been v-e-r-y careful on reassembly, followed everything in the book to the letter, listened to advice, primed the pump with vaseline, soaked the lifters, checked everything twice if not three times, etc etc.

When I took the rocker covers off there was not much oil sitting there as per your experience. I venture to suggest this is normal, as long as there is some weeping out when you run the motor.

Did you oil with rebuild lube (thick honey like oil) the ends of the pushrods, rockers and valve tips, cam lobes, when you rebuilt, if so it should provide lubrication at least till the oil pump can get some oil to the rockers, any sqeaking noise would indicate metal to metal contact and premature wear or damage, I use Moreys or Lucas it sticks like ***** to a wet blanket, Regards Frank.

Originally Posted by Tank

Did you oil with rebuild lube (thick honey like oil) the ends of the pushrods, rockers and valve tips, cam lobes, when you rebuilt, if so it should provide lubrication at least till the oil pump can get some oil to the rockers, any sqeaking noise would indicate metal to metal contact and premature wear or damage, I use Moreys or Lucas it sticks like ***** to a wet blanket, Regards Frank.

Cam lobes, yes.
Top of pushrods, I don't think so. Now I know!

I have rebuilt 4 other motors from different vehicles (3 with pushrods) and never had this before. Mind you, the Rover V8 was the only one of the four with hydraulic lifters.

G`day Pete

Had a look at the rocker shafts/arm

The shafts are identical , the reason for the notch placement is to have the oil hole for the arms in a particular , which as it turns out is to he bottom or lower side .

The oil hole for the pushrods inside the arms is to the opposite side to the rubbing block so with the notch the right way the oil hole in the shaft and the oil hole in the arm are on the same sides .

So the assembled gear can go on either side and will give one notch to the front on right and one to the back on left .

If the arms were around the wrong way , the pushrod end would go to the valve and the rubbing block would go to the pushrod .

The little holes in the end of the arms at the rubbing block end say which hand they are .

Hole in the right is righthanded .

The oil hole in the arm which is at the pushrod side is on the opposite side to the little hole at the rubbibg block end .

As said earlier and which Bradtot and now LoveMyV8County and djam1 are all agreeing with if you have any oil there it could well be you`ve done it right .

Cheers