You know, I've seen this discussion before and I knew as soon as Bruce
mentioned it, there would be a flurry of "Don't use restrictors" I still
can't figure out why you guys are so dead set against these, because
Mondello recommends and sells them?
Keith, I sent the following to you last night, privately, but it bounced.
Therefor, I'll have to send it to you via the Olds List.
Milton Schick
1964 442 Cutlass
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Keith,
THE OLDS OIL SYSTEM, AGAIN -
The restrictors are exactly the wrong way to treat the problem. Only the
symptom is cured, not the cause. I personally don't believe in the oil
restrictor system, for it's only addressing the symptom and not the disease.
The major complaint is the Olds oil system pumps too much oil up to the top,
and it doesn't return fast enough. For stock engines, the factory really
doesn't care, as long as production goes out the door with next to zero
warranty claims. For high performance work, the oil system needs to be
modified, exactly the same way it's modified for most any other engine.
There is a peculiarity with the Olds system, but that's caused by the choice
of materials for the crankshafts, to save corporate money on cost of
production. That peculiarity has masked the cause of the so-called Olds
oiling problem. We learned about this situation the hard way 30 years ago,
and solved it. Apparently, most of it was forgotten.
The following is the way we learned to build an Olds oil system, 30 years
ago. It hasn't changed:
1) Thoroughly cross drill the crank main journals. Chamfer all oiling holes.
Grind the crank 10/10, even if it doesn't need it, so that each main and rod
journal can be radiused more fully at each end. Clevite 77 bearings for an
Olds already have extra chamfer on the edges to accommodate extra journal
radius.
2) Run 0.0035" clearance on the mains and 0.0025" on the rods. Use full oil
groove main bearings with the bottom half of #1 main being solid without a
groove. Rod side clearance is 0.018".
3) Thoroughly grind, deburr, and polish the inside of the block and heads.
Open up all oil drain back holes to maximum size, with special attention to
the interface of head and block. Paint the entire inside of the heads and
block with Glyptal red electric motor paint. Throw away the sheet metal
baffle over the lifters. Now, the oil will race back to the pan.
4) Use the Toronado oil pump with the high pressure spring. With the crank
mods, it won't really be high pressure anymore. However, you'll need the
potential for high pressure to move the oil mass volume quickly to where
it's needed. You have 2 choices for an oil pump pickup. Either custom build
a pickup that bolts to the bottom of the oil pump with a square oil feed
hole machined into the bottom steel plate of the oil pump, thus pulling oil
directly into the oil pump gears without any middleman, or use either
appropriate Milodon bolt-onto-the-oil-pump oil pickup that goes with either
the Milodon 7 or 8 quart oil pan and the Milodon version of the Olds
Toronado oil pump, drilled and threaded to accept the bolt-on oil pump
pickup. You're going to use a Milodon 7 or 8 quart pan anyway.
5) Use either the original W30 windage tray set or the Milodon windage tray
for an Olds.
6) Use a very good oil cooler.
7) Use 40 weight oil.
8) Port out the oil passage volume in the #5 main cap below where the oil
pump sits. Go in with a good carbide 3/8" diameter burr with a hemi-sphere
tip and open up the passage and smooth away all sharp angles and twists and
turns. You want the oil to shoot through the passage in the main cap in the
same way Gen. George Patton said he wanted to see U.S. Troopers moving
through German resistance, "Like s**t through a goose."
At this point, the Olds so-called oiling problem is solved. The cause is
insufficient work done by Olds to the crank and inattention to detail for
block and head cleanup and not having enough oil volume to begin with, but
you need more oil for cooling anyway. There is no other choice.
If you want to build NASCAR or 24 Hours at Lemans or Formula One longevity
into your Olds engine, then add the following:
9) Beg, borrow, buy, or steal a forged steel crank. It's not much of a
problem for small blocks, for 330s are still laying around, or for 425s,
since a forged steel crank comes in one. For 455s, it's a real problem.
10) For all big blocks, polish the sides of the rods, shotpeen the rods, and
install a 0.927" I.D. oillite bronze bushing in the pin end for the piston
pin, with an oiling hole drilled on top. For all small blocks, do exactly
the same thing, but do it with 403 rods, and add oil squirters to the 403
rods. Your engine now has free floating piston pins, a free horsepower
bonus.
11) Use custom designed ultra lightweight pistons with 0.927" tapered pins
about 3.0" long. I prefer double tru-arcs for pin retainers, others like
spiral locks. Your choice. Make absolutely
certain the total weight of piston and pin does not exceed 660 grams.
12) Rev limits for all Olds engines must be strictly adhered too, not
because of any oiling problem, but because of the limitations of the crank
materials.
Any cast iron crank engine = 5500 RPM MAXIMUM.
Any nodular iron crank engine = 6000 RPM MAXIMUM. (I stupidly went to 8300
with Thunder's first engine with a nodular iron crank and then, thinking I
could get away with it, repeatedly went to 7500. Dumb, but I learned, the
hard way.)
455 or long stroke 400 with a forged steel crank = 7000 RPM MAXIMUM.
(Thunder's third engine has a forged steel crank. It has a pretty sounding
ring.)
425 or short stroke 400 with a forged steel crank = 7500 RPM MAXIMUM.
330 or 350 with a forged steel crank = 8000 RPM MAXIMUM.
403 with a forged steel crank = 6000 RPM MAXIMUM.
Notice that a forged steel crank cures the problems, as long as it has been
properly prepped. Oh, a definition of crank flex. You know you have
sustained crank flex when #3 main (the thrust main) is beaten out to
0.040"-0.060" clearance, you've spun either #2 and/or #4 main, and #1 and #5
main look like they were just installed. Crank center flex is the
reciprocating weight trying to pull itself out of the block. The extreme
stress builds up and concentrates in the center of the crank. The block
didn't flex. The crank did. Only forged steel has the rigidity to ultimately
resist crank flex. Two extra counter-weights added to the center of a forged
steel crank increases rigidity by orders of magnitude.
The bottom line? The Olds engine oiling problem is caused by typical factory
least-cost manufacturing and assembly methods, ignoring all attention to
detail within the block for rapid oil return to the oil pan, and by
insufficient materials for crank construction, all of which is fine for a
stock engine, but inadequate for a high-performance engine.
These opinions are absolute. I'll defend them to the death. We autopsied too
many Olds engines in the past. We knew what caused the problems. That's why
some of the things I see some of the professional Olds builders say cause me
to cringe and go batty. It's as if everyone's forgotten what was learned a
long time ago.
Milton Schick
I do agree that the return flow path needs to be cleaned up so the oil
flow back is better, but no matter what you do, the gravity flow back can't
keep up with the pump pushing it up.
After losing a few rod bearings right after I got my 67 442, I along with
everyone else figured out the problem was exactly that, too much oil up top,
not enough down below. So I went with a bigger pan, cross drilled the crank
and installed the restrictors. Would my problem have been fixed by just
using the bigger pan, I don't know, but I do know I can see no negative
effects from the oil restrictors and I twist the 400 to 7200 rpm's and all
is still good 20 years later. Just my $.02.
Keith
Rapid City, SD
87 442
70 Challenger
67 442
66 442
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