Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Oil Line Questions 1958 Chevy 235

I'm putting a 1958 Chevy 235 back together. I took it apart several years ago. I seem to remember there being some sort of an oil line from point A to point B. I am using hydraulic lifters. Can someone tell if if there is suppose to be a oil line here, and if I need one, where do I get it from?

Yes, you are correct. There needs to be an oil line between points A and B. It needs to clear the push rods so it will have a slight outward curve to it in the area where the side plate has a bulge.I'm not sure any aftermarket suppliers sell these, but it is not hard to make at all. I don't remember the sizes, but I'll check my parts later and post them for you if someone else doesn't respond to your question.

Isn't "A" just an open oil return hole?

Seems to me they deleted the oil line in '58. At least the '58 cars that I have seem in the salvage yards were without it...
If you have a shop repair manual for '58, it will show you what to do.
There should be a tapped hole to the rear of the last lifter (but I don't see it in the picture), this hole would be pluged as well as your "B" hole with an 1/8" pipe plug.

I didn't know that about the '58 either. I'm stuck in '55.

How else does oil get to the rocker arm shafts? That is what the line was for in all of the 235s and 261s that I have worked on. most, if not all, that i had or have are earlier than 1957.

hoytww

Starting with '58, the oil is sent past all the lifters to the center of the block where it then goes straight up past the point where the line would have connected on the earlier blocks. This is why it is important to make sure you use the correct lifters with the annular recess for the later engines.
If you look at any 58-62 factory shop manual, you will find a picture of how the oil passages work...

gearhead is correct. The steel tube was discontinued in 1958.

In 1958 I am almost positive the oil to the rockers went thru a head bolt in one positon near the outside of the head. I remember this bolt was drilled thru the center and seems it had a hole in the side of that drilled passage.It was also notorius for stopping up and shutting off the oil flow. We used to grind a groove in the side of the bolt to let oil pass up beside that headbolt! It was often bypassed by all sorts of contraptions. Not many people knew how the oil was supposed to get to the rockers! I would look long and hard at all my head bolts.

Not from the factory. If you were to take a closer look at the engine you are refering to, you would probably find that it was a 59-62 replacement block with the '58 top end installed. This would have had the larger oil grooves in the rocker arms and would have allowed more oil to the top end, because they opened up the restriction in the block passages for '59. The bolt (and the plug) was then added by the jobber that swapped out the short block for the purpose of restoring the restriction as would be found with the earlier blocks. I have just went through all of this under another post by "hellfish". The bolt is only used when using '58 or earlier rockers on a 59-62 block.
Again, look at a 58-62 manual, it shows how it was supposed to work...

Those memories come from a 1958 Chevrolet 1/2 ton truck that I bought my father in about 1962. We rebuilt that block couple of times and then put in a new shortblock from GM and then later rebuilt that and I still have the truck but it received a new 283 in 1974 or so. Just knew I remembered that bolt. that was a lot of years ago.