learned about viscosity breakdown today

[hotrod_991]

So I was driving my new 350 down the road to gas station after adjusting my rocker arms and was just enjoying the afternoon when i big rig in my lane slowed down and I was going to miss my exit off the interstate so I kicked her down alil to get by and make my exit. well i made it but by the time I hit the exit stated hearing an unpleasent sound and smelled burnt oil so I shut it down promplty and rolled into the station. I popped the hood and has smoke comeing out throught the breather cap in my valve cover so I emediatly unbolted and pulled the cover off and inspected the rockers. everything was fine nothing broke or loose. I pulled the oil dip stick and the oil looked was extremely thin for lack of a better word. well called my dad and turns out the put realyl light weight break in oil in the motor and it was only supose to be good for about 100 miles then needed to be changed. Well I was unaware of this tho I should have known. We towed it back to the house and I am changing oil tomarrow morning. Going with a heavier oil im thinking 40 or 50 wieght witht he heat here in TX would be fine.

[85Bowtie]

You usually don't break in a 350 with "really light" oil. That's for lawn mowers.

Some 10w30 and a bottle of zinc additive will do just fine for most builds.

[gchemist]

You can go straight 30 weight. I've used 20-50 wt for old engines.

[qu1cks1lver56]

Yeah a 10w 30 or straight 20 for break in, shouldn't need anything lighter than that.
for me it's 30 weight in the winters, 40 in spring/fall, and 20w 50 or straight 50 in the summers.

[hotrod_991]

yea its staying around 90 and 100 daily here so I was going to use straight 50 and see how she does

[irishman999]

Originally Posted by hotrod_991

yea its staying around 90 and 100 daily here so I was going to use straight 50 and see how she does

Cool man your in chuco town! This weather lately is brutal hott.

[dan76]

Potential for damaged bearings/crank/rods/cam/lifters. After you change the oil/filter, might want to run a couple hundred miles and change again. How's it sound when started cold????if 100* temps are considered cold.

[pseudopimp]

lots of people from around here. 100 plus all this week

[hotrod_991]

well i changed the oil today and unfortunatly I have a knock now. It not a solid knock like a rod or piston hitting. Its more of a hollow tinny sound. I pulled plugs and no damage to them. THought it was a blown header gasket but when i go to drive it. It has no power and the sounds gets louder and meaner. Now the part that is stumping me is that its fine at idle just a lil rocker tick like its out of adjustment tho I have adjusted them three times in last 2 days jsut to make sure. I dont hear the noice till it comes off idle. any throttle at all and i can hear the knock. Like i said its a hollow tinny kind of sound coming from the middle to rear of the passanger side.

[hotrod_991]

irishman999 and pseudopimp nice to see someone form my nexk of the woods we should get together once i get the mistess fixed. DO iether of you know about any truck groups or meets here in ELP or there in cruces?

[hotrod_991]

you know now that i think of it when i was sdjusting the rockers today i might have noticed that one of the rockers were sitting at a slight angle. not sure but I will pull the cover again tomarrow and take a closer look. if it is that would mean a bent push rod right?

[irishman999]

Im not sure of any square body clubs in Cruces, there should be one because there is quite a few nice chevy trucks. Im currently not in Cruces as of last week when i quit my job there and im just kinda hangin out in ruidoso, my truck is there in Dona Ana still.

I was told once when the chevy small block loses oil pressure the first thing to get ruined before you shut it down is the pushrods and rockers. Are you gonna change all yours out? it sounds like your on the right track.

[hotrod_991]

im going to pull alll my push rods and see if any are bent and check all my rockers real close and also my screw in studs. hopeing if its anything its just a bent push rods that simple and not really that expensive i really dont want to have to pull the intake manifold and swap lifters.

[irishman999]

Good luck man, hopefully thats the problem!

[hotrod_991]

ok well today i finally got out to look at the truck. pulled the passanger valve cover and started the motor to see how things were moving. Took me a few minutes of looking then i saw it. number 4 exhaughst rocker was not pushing the valve down. was just sitting there tapping the top of the stem. so after enjoying that i finally found my culprit I pulled the rocker arms and push rod out and checked em. rocker arm is good push rod is straight and not broken. so I start thinking lifter collapsed or broke so I looked down inside and the keeper was still in the top of the lifter and didnt look shinny or mashed in so now im leaning towards something to do with the keeper and lock on that rocker actually sitting alot higher than the rest of the rockers so I think it might have been over tightened and was not letting the lifter do its thing. Im going to try a few tricks to see if the liofter is moving the pushrod up and down and if so the im going to try and get the lifter to take its prime again.

if the l ifter is shot i should be able to fish it out throyught the head right? i really dont want to pull the intake maniforld unless i absolutely have to, and were can I order just one lifter?

[irishman999]

Sounds like the intake needs to come off. how much are new lifters?

[ratty 46]

Are you sure it's not a weak spring that is causing the issue? That would be the easiest thing to check before the intake would need to be removed.

Ratty 46

[hotrod_991]

not sure how a weak spring would effect it. The spring is not even being depressed. the issue it the rocker arm is not pushing the valve down

[ratty 46]

Originally Posted by hotrod_991

not sure how a weak spring would effect it. The spring is not even being depressed. the issue it the rocker arm is not pushing the valve down

Well then ..... I guess ... my guess was way off - sorry for bringing that up. I didn't read that in the thread. My bad.

Ratty 46

[hotrod_991]

well just went out and slid the pushrod back into the head and i can push the lifter down by hand with the pushrod with out much resistance. so the lifter has colapsed and i think the internal spring is broke so looks like im calling speedway and see if iI can get the lifter replaced under warranty and start taking the top the motor apart.

[irishman999]

The lifters are hydrolic oil filled right?

[hotrod_991]

THey are Rhodes anti pump ups. it is the only one that I can manually depress by pushing on the back side of the rocker so it is deff the one that is not pumpin up anymore. It doesnt have any resistance left in it.

[hotrod_991]

torn it down today and got all the lifters out. as you can see from the pictures I found the problem one haha. Turns out I really over tightened them when i kept adjusting them. I just HAD to try and make it perfect...should slap myself. the bottom of the lifter can wore off to the point that is ate it to the internal oiling hole so it could not pump up. I checked the cam lobe and its still there thankfully and there was not a bunch of shavings in the oil or anywere else so must have gotten it out when i changed the oil after the issue accured. I have the new ones soaking in oil over night and ill put it all back together tomarrow early afternoon and see how she sounds then. I will adjust the rockers once and leave it alone.

[OleBlue79]

Your lucky you didn't round the cam lobe. Good luck!

[westofb]

Originally Posted by OleBlue79

Your lucky you didn't round the cam lobe. Good luck!

I would be shocked if your cam is okay...if you ground that much off the lifter, I would bet the cam isn't in a one condition.
When you soak the lifters overnight, are you using a push rod to pump them up prior to install? I usually soak them too, but once they are submerged in oil, I take a push rod and slowly push on the tops of them, you will see air bubbles come from the lifter, it doesn't take a lot of pressure. I then let them sit overnight and repump then again just before installing them, they will get to the point that no bubbles come out of them. I sure everyone has opinions on how to do this, this is just the way I have done it with no problems.