Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 57 235 oil line questions

hi, im new to this board. looks like a real informative board, really glad to have found it. anyway, i recently bought a really nice 53 belair hardtop,,,rust free with a rebuilt engine. after enjoying it for about two weeks, the engine threw a rod right through the side of the block,,,man, i thought you basically couldnt kill these things ( believe me, i tried when i was a kid,,wanted an excuse to put a V8 in my 68 camaro,,my first car,,,i tried like hell, but that **** thing wouldnt blow),,needless to say, i was kinda shocked when mine went,,,my guess is that someone forgot to torque a rod bolt or something,,,,anyway, i had a 57 235 that i figured would solve all my problems,,the guy i bought it from said it ran great when it was pulled,,,to make a really LONG story short (somewhat) we had to fabricate a front mount setup so i could install it in the car, while the engine was out, i replaced the rod and main bearings (even though they really were not too bad) i figured better safe than sorry,,,so we get the engine in, go to start it and almost no compression in cyls #1 & #2,,,i pulled the head, and there was a valve broken in a bunch of little pieces on top of the piston and a little debris is #2,,,(so much for "it ran great when pulled"..i sent the head out and while i was at it had hardened valve seats installed,,,got the head put back on,,,started it up,,,it was a bit noisy but i only ran it for a few seconds..the reason it was noisy i discovered was that there was no oil entering the engine.(The cannister overflowed),,i took the lid off the cannister, removed the filter, soaked up the oil that (it didnt drain by itself out the bottom),,figured there was a clogged oil line. i proceeded to make sure there were no blockages in the line from the bottom of the cannister to the engine and in the line that is under the side cover. i cranked the engine a couple of turns and saw that oil was being pumped into the cannister, but not draining out the bottom, so i realized that the oil pump was functioning,,,i guess my next logical step should be to remove the cannister and see if there is some sort of blockage in the exit fitting....(this is the same cannister that was on my car originally, so now its got me wondering if maybe it became clogged while it was in the car before, contributing to blowing my engine) im new at this stuff, and now looking back on things i should have cleaned it before reinstalling it on the car....i read some other threads on this type of thing and saw that there is a bolt in the head that has some sort of taper to it that lets oil pass through..does anyone know if a 57 235 would have had this? anyone here encounter the same problems i am having,,if so, what did you do? i am sorry for writing a novel for my first post,,,,i hope someone can help me figure this out,,,i figured if there was anyone that could help, it would be here,,

jim

Your engine is a bypass system. that means your oil filter is basically "borrowing" about 5-10 psi from the main bearings, which means that you can plug off the filter completely without causing an oiling problem with the rest of the engine.
If you are pressurizing that canister enough to cause it to pop like that, it would seem to me that all of the pumps pressure is being diverted to the filter and not the main bearings. Perhaps you didn't install the main bearings correctly???
Or perhaps one of the oil galleys is plugged.
Another long shot would be that it had been converted to full flow, which means you can't use that canister as it will not allow enough flow without starving the rest of the motor. If this were the case, the block should be tapped for hoses that are much bigger than 1/8" NPT.

Since you have no oil coming out of that tube behind the sidecover, that means no oil is getting to the camshaft either. Which is pointing me back to something being wrong with the bottom end.

The drilled head bolt was a jobber item that was used when replacing a 57 and earlier block, with a 58-62 block, and reusing the 53-57 rocker arms. It is used in conjunction with a plug that forces the oil through the bolt, instead of around it. I have gone over this several times before. Look through earlier posts.
The short story is that if you have a 58-62 block, you need to be using the 58-62 rocker arms with the offset oiling groove. 53-57 blocks don't care what arms are used.

instead of turning the engine over and burning a bearing etc. i would pull the distributor out and turn the oil pump using a screwdriver shaft or old dist. shaft on a electric drill....then you can check oiling without hurting anything..