panhead tappet oiling

[TOBPITBULLS]

heres my configuration... (built by casey custom cycles out of ky, believe he was called Bug, this is stamped on kidney cover )
1959 lower cases - 1956 heads with work done to them, ported, oversized valves, springs, ... 3 5/8" bore with stock stroke, was originally built to be a 96" stroker but left as stock stroke (was told this by axtel records)
cylinders and pistons are axtel and has an external oiler as follows...
plugged offend of pinion shaft end to allow oil to come out of top of pinion shaft, from here a hole was drilled in top of kidney case and a Y fitting was taped into kidney cover to accept oil as it pushed up from pinion shaft... off the Y is 2# 1/8" stainless steel braided hose, one goes to rear cylinder and other goes to front cylinder to feed oil to heads (cylinders have been machined 2" from top to accept a threaded fitting in which each hose goes to inorder to carry oil to heads) it has a 1970ish oil pump
solid lifters with a Andrews B cam...S&S shorty carb...3 squirts of gas, 3 kick overs, ignition on a 1 kick start bike, no choke nor enricher needed, even when is very cold...

oil pressure is very very good...even when hot at warm ups...

heres question - when I re-checked the pushrods clearances, (which we set at .006 to .010 WHEN COLD) the front (toward front end of bike) tappet block had about 1/4" of oil in it (this was after setting for a day) above tappet block tops or where pushrod tubes set in, so oil leaked all over when front tubes were taken of...the rear tappet blocks were normal as there was just a lil oil around lifter tops, no oil leaked out...when i cleaned tappet blocks the rear one had good air through is for drainage, but the front did not, very tight and air would not whistle through it, i figure with volume fed bike it would slowly drain down??...i put back together and started bike and allowed to get hot, turned bike off and removed pushrod tubes 5 mins after bike was turned off, there was about (hard to tell exactly) perhaps 3/4" of oil setting in pushrod tube, maybe a lil less...if i understand oil flow correctly front tappet dont allow oil to drain through but rear tappet does? Im thinking of drilling a .060 hole (or whatever other tappet drain hole is) in front tappet...whats thoughts of doing this?
I can tell oil is not draining but prolly seeping gradually through lifter clearances, which are tight in tappets..conerned about pushrod tube filling up alot when taking a long ride, at this piont have only started bike several times and not taked on a ride...i can text pics 812-584-2793...thanks Joseph...and God bless America!!!!

[TOBPITBULLS]

forgot to add, this set up uses an S&S reed in place of a oiler gear and return oil back to oil tank is excellent

[Andygears]

If you could just take the front pan cover off and be sure the oil is draining into the crankcase properly, but I doubt that's easy. The mods to your motor make it harder to figure what is not "balanced" in the crankcase vapor, vacumn, oiling system. A stock system uses the timed breather to "suck" oil thru the crank and down from the top end. But the reed system may only relieve pressure not hold vacumn. And a late model pump pushes a lot more volumn.

Perhaps you are just allowing too much volumn of oil to the front head. An easy fix to try would be an orifice in the front head oil feed line. Tap the inside of a feed fitting and make a "Jet" ( like a carb jet) with a hole thru and a screwdriver slot. I have heard of the need for this but have never done it myself.

Maybe others have ideas.

Andygears

[Doc37W]

You wrote you cleaned the front & rear tappet blocks and the rear drained , but the front did not. There is are two holes on the top of the bores that allow for oil drainage. They intersect and join to a smaller hole allowing oil to drop onto the cam, & bottom of the cam case for return. I would remove the front block, clean it, and blow compressed air thru the return holes. The smaller hole is probably plugged. I wouldn't try it on the engine for fear of blowing whatever is plugging it into all those moving parts. BTW, pushrods should be set to where you can just turn them with your fingers at the lowest point of travel (no up or down, .006"-.010" clearance), unless you are running hyd. lifters. Then, the clearance is in the lifter and set by collasping the space in side the hyd. body. Rotate the engine to where the front exhaust tappet JUST starts to move up and adjust the INTAKE pushrod. Then, rotate the engine to where the intake tappet goes up and JUST STARTS to go down, adjust the exhaust. This assures that the tappet roller is at it's lowest point (heel) on the cam. Do the same to the rear cylinder. You'll be amazed how much quieter the tappets are. Doc

[TOBPITBULLS]

thank you for advice and info men...i will remove front tappet block and let soak in a cleaner...then try to run compressed air through.

[TOBPITBULLS]

Doc in regards to adjusting pushrods as you described... I fully understand, but (and perhaps I’m wrong) I thought that when motor was full running temp that the aluminum pushrods would expand that’s why I set them at .006 to .010 when cold thinking that when hot I’d lose .003 to .005 of the given clearance?

[RUBONE]

Strokers commonly have the cylinder drains relocated to a lower level to function (they need to exit below the oil rings!). When the engine was built if the cylinders were sleeved in the return holes (common way to block them off) and new holes not drilled because it was decided NOT to stroke it, then there is no cylinder drain. There should be very little oil in the tubes of a Panhead, unless you have a cylinder drain problem.

[jobo12]

Doc in regards to adjusting pushrods as you described... I fully understand, but (and perhaps I’m wrong) I thought that when motor was full running temp that the aluminum pushrods would expand that’s why I set them at .006 to .010 when cold thinking that when hot I’d lose .003 to .005 of the given clearance?

The aluminum pushrods do in fact expand with engine temp, but so do your jugs-- they're just as tall and a LOT hotter. The actual difference between the two expansion rates is really very small. Like Doc said, the preferred method is to remove all the slack, then back off just far enough to spin with finger pressure. If you're running .006 - .010" clearance, your lifters must clatter ferociously. In my personal experience, the valve train actually gets a little looser as the engine heats up.
Good luck,
Joe

[TOBPITBULLS]

Took front tapper block off... bottom hole which is about 1/16” was clogged... cleaned out and reassembled.
Good to go there.