[Lunch Bucket]

I just completely rebuild a 1989 5.2,318. We can run the motor with the

valve covers off and there's no oil that we can tell of. How much oil should

be coming out of the rocker shaft? Should there be excessive oil on the

rockers?

 

[charlie1935]

Yes, there should be oil there. You probably have the rocker shafts turned wrong. :gr_patrio

 

[88D250]

The upper end gets it's pressure from the cam bearings. I assume you replaced them. I agree most likely a rocker shaft wrong or plugged.

 

[threetwos]

Oil feed holes go outboard towards the exhaust ports. Did you replace the cam bearings yourself? Are you aware of the oil feed hole in the bearing has to line up with the passage in the journal? Is the engine running when you are looking for this or manually turned over with breaker bar and oil pump priming shaft? If priming, the engine has to turn over to feed the heads,(it's a timed oil supply). Did you use the correct LA head gaskets and NOT Magnum head gaskets which feed the oil through the pushrods?

 

[88D250]

Oil feed holes go outboard towards the exhaust ports. Did you replace the cam bearings yourself? Are you aware of the oil feed hole in the bearing has to line up with the passage in the journal? Is the engine running when you are looking for this or manually turned over with breaker bar and oil pump priming shaft? If priming, the engine has to turn over to feed the heads,(it's a timed oil supply). Did you use the correct LA head gaskets and NOT Magnum head gaskets which feed the oil through the pushrods?

GOOD INFO. Craig

 

[Lunch Bucket]

I appreciate all the help but we've figured out the problem. I replaced the camshaft and the new camshaft doesn't have oil holes in the in the 2nd and 4th spots where the camshaft rides on the cam bearings, which causes the motor to get no oil to the rockers and rocker shaft. Thanks.

 

[threetwos]

I appreciate all the help but we've figured out the problem. I replaced the camshaft and the new camshaft doesn't have oil holes in the in the 2nd and 4th spots where the camshaft rides on the cam bearings, which causes the motor to get no oil to the rockers and rocker shaft. Thanks.

Sorry to hear it man. But hey, at least you didnt install it yet?(the engine in the vehicle), and smoke out the upper valvetrain! BTW, now's the time to put in a bigger camshaft!

 

[B-300]

It must of been a bad camshaft or one from a magnum engine then.

 

[threetwos]

It must of been a bad camshaft or one from a magnum engine then.

I was initially thinking the same thing b-300 but wouldnt the magnum cams snout be to short?(if both vehicles are fuel injected it wouldnt be)

 

[B-300]

I thought of that and didn't mention it since an '89 should have TBI. The short snout cam is used on the magnum engine due to the different timing cover and reverse rotation water pump.
I have a '91 LA engine in my '71 van and it has a longer snout roller cam and originally had factory TBI.

 

[Lunch Bucket]

The camshaft was a camshaft for a magnum engine, does anyone know where to get a stock roller cam for an 89 318. The cam that the dodge dealer sold me went to a magnum but they told me it was for the 89.

 

[charlie1935]

I think I would let someone know that they screwed up. They might accidently make it good. :gr_patrio

 

[threetwos]

Yeah, lunch bucket, I would ask for the supervisor at the place you bought your parts. They should have known that a MPI injected 5.2 uses a pushrod oiled valvetrain. Obviously they didnt, which if caught in time would have saved you much grief and money. Their parts jobber doesnt sound very knowledgeable about the inner workings of MoPar's most successful small block engine of all time and has been produced reliably since 1955. Keep us informed, Eddie

 

[Lunch Bucket]

The Van that I put the 89 5.2 in is TBI. We've gotten past the oiling problem. Now we've got a problem with the oil pressure. With 10W-40 the motor is hot and at idle it is only putting out only 5 PSI. When the motor is at 3000 RPM it's at 30 PSI. What should the oil pressure be at idle? What should it be at 3000 RPM? This is with a new oil pump, all new bearings.

 

[threetwos]

The Van that I put the 89 5.2 in is TBI. We've gotten past the oiling problem. Now we've got a problem with the oil pressure. With 10W-40 the motor is hot and at idle it is only putting out only 5 PSI. When the motor is at 3000 RPM it's at 30 PSI. What should the oil pressure be at idle? What should it be at 3000 RPM? This is with a new oil pump, all new bearings.

Did you re-build this engine? If so did you or whomever did it replace the stepped oil galley plug in the rear of the block next to the oil filter inlet? Did you replace or remove any plugs at the front of the timing chain area, specifically behind it? In other words did you check all stepped or screw in oil galley plugs to ensure the system is 'closed' besides main and rod bearing clearances being to much this should have a pressure of 25- 30 PSI at idle and at least 40-50 psi at 3000 RPM's. A High volume pump will be even more than this especially at idle. Another thing, are you using the same pushrods and lifters as before? As a rule of thumb you should have 10 psi for evry 1000 rpm;s you are at the minimum now! You have an internal leak somewhere inside.

 

[Lunch Bucket]

I did replace all of the unthreaded oil galley plugs in the motor. When I got the motor back from the machine shop, they put the galley plug that goes under the oil filter adapter. We replaced the other 2 that go on the outside of the block. We had one left but couldn't find where it went anywhere. The man at the machine shop said that there should have only been two other threaded galley plugs besides the one underneath the oil filter adapter. Is there another threaded oil galley plug that goes inside the block somewhere.

 

[threetwos]

Thre is a plug that goes inside the oil galley near the oil filter inlet. It must be driven in an approx distance. Without this plug inplace at the correct height the symptoms you are desccribing will result. There are 2 cupped plugs located at the front of the block behind the timing chain. The other plug is located at the oil filter pickup point but it is installed above the oil pump. It is driven in approx 2 1/8 to 2 5/16 from the block surface. Without this plug at the oil pump/filter intersection the symptoms you describe will happen. Another although mesy approach would be to observe the oil coming to the valvetrain with valve covers removed and priming the engine maually with an electric drill and slowly rotating the engine to observe any internal leaks, the intake can also be removed to observe, allthough these are last resort tactics. Whatever the solution it must be fixed, the engine will 'eat itself' if this isnt resolved. You could dump in some 20W 50 to se if it helps raise the pressure, but I think there is something wrong internally, and it's not a clearance issue like to loose of bearing clearances. Good Luck

 

[B-300]

There are 2 small cups, under the timing cover and 1 screw-in plug under the oil filter adapter as stated above,
At the rear of the engine there are 2 plugs on the external surface (galley and galley cover). One of these is a threaded galley plug, the other is a cover to put a wrench thru to reach the other threaded galley plug about 2" inside the block... This one is left out by mistake sometimes and is threaded.