I've noticed a problem when taking a corner too fast: Within a minute one of the lifters starts making noise and not opening a valve. I have since stopped this activity. Am I not picking up enough oil because of no baffling in the oil pan or is there some other problem? The engine is a basically stock 194.

How many miles are on this motor???? If high does it look gummy under the valve cover?? If so get some engine flush. Follow everything on it. Or you maybe having some other issues, Maybe???????
You have a weak lifter.Again depending on the miles on the motor.

Hi Larry. The motor was rebuilt before I bought it. I'm sure it has less than 30k on it. It was clean two years ago when I replaced the valve cover but I'll check again.

If you are sucking air through your oil pump pickup tube the first place you are likely to notice it is in "spongy" lifters that make noise. It may be that you are uncovering the inlet screen, or have a cracked pickup tube, or even because you are using the wrong grade of motor oil.

I usually use 10w-40 in all of my vehicles. Never had a problem. The service manual calls for 10w-30. Maybe I should go back to that.

Might be a good idea to pull the oil pan to see if there are any possible items going wrong.

Partial blockage? Pick up screen not positioned correctly.
Do you have an oil pressure gauge hooked up?
If so, what are the pressures, idle, WOT,turning too fast around a turn? Do you see the pressure dropping off while cornering, accelerating?

How many quarts of oil do you have in the engine?
Maybe add a half a quart of oil & try fast cornering again?

MBHD

Do you have an oil pressure gauge?? It will let you know if you are exposing the pick up, when mine starts to dip a little on a launch or a sharp turn it usually means I am a quart low.

Dan -64'NOVA HT TWO FIFTY-

I'd have to agree more with French. Espcialy with pretty much a freash motor. One qt low Or??? even maybe?? 2 qts lower I don't this type of issue happening. UNLESS he has a HIGH volume pump even then this seems kinda slim.Or two Unless the pickup screen is not in the bottom of the oil pan where is should be. It's about the only way I see sucking air at 1 or 2 qts Low.

The lifters in the Plymouth Fury I used to have would make noise when the oil got low. I'll check my levels.

Ok. The oil was a tad below the line. I added a little to put it just over the line. I took a few corners and so far no noise. Oil pressure ranges anywhere from 40 at idle when warm to almost 60 PSI at WOT. It's amazing how a little can make all the difference.

Next time you change the oil on that engine, see if the stick reads 'full' when the right amount of oil is istalled.

You may have a 'bad' reading there. Usually it would take a quart or more (low) to cause that problem.

Adjust the valves as well to eliminate that possibility.

Good luck.