sbc valve spring oilers

[Bill Chase]

If a guy were to use these on the typical10.5:1 street/strip small block with moderate cam, aluminum heads w/ roller rockers, and melling hv pump. would special valve seals be needed?

Hardin marine makes a nice piece that makes fitting very simple. and feeding it from the oil temp or pressure port of the 880 block is very straight forward. is my thinking wrong in believing that it would help valve springs live longer with basically no downsides?

I would love to hear from those that have actually used these, or the moroso pieces and their results.

[cgarb]

To me the down side would be running out of oil in the pan. I would work on the drain back holes in the heads and the block to aid the oil retuning as quick as possible. Probably keep an eye on the oil pressure gage for a while when you first start running it. They use those set ups a lot in race type builds which a lot of times have dry sump and in wet sump set ups have increased oil capacity to deal with it. It may be fine, I've never used it myself, but that's how I would approach it if I were to try. Also, I have used the Moroso oil deflector on top of my rocker studs. It directs the oil spray out of the pushrods to hit the baffle and run down and drip on the rocker tips and springs. I figured hey, why needlessly coat the inside of the valve covers, I'll just use the oil I'm already bypassing and direct it to my springs better.

[Bill Chase]

Even if you look at the y body l98/lt1 valve covers they had drip tabs in the valve covers. I suspect they were mostly to keep the factory pivot balls full of oil to keep things cool. the 91 l98 did come from the factory with a melling m55hv if i'm not mistaken? it definitely has enough oil pressure even stock with 102k it idles at over 55 psi of oil pressure. new engine once at 160* idling has around 60 psi of oil pressure. the stock pan and windage tray aren't horrible. and I did clean up the drain backs of the afr heads, as well as smooth out the drain back holes in the valley of the block. no oil restrictors used. I figured for a street car I would rather have the extra oil dripping all over the cam and crank like the factory did it. i have good rockers, but they do not have pressurized spring oiling like the T&D sets do. they just drip from lash adjusters and down the body to drip over the roller and valve stem/keepers.

I am just wandering how much more service life I can get out of this 385 with the use of the oilers. and if i had to change the valve seals I could do that easy enough. and given the fact this engine will almost never see the high side of 5800 rpm for anything but a second. But it will be driven, have to idle in traffic. some extra oil on the springs and stems could only help?

why don't more people do this with endurance type engines? it seems like the factories always do little stuff like this for severe duty engines, cop cars, etc etc. If you look at the old mopar stuff with factory shafts they had pressurized oiling and the valvetrain in them was damn near bulletproof.

[Bill Chase]

Maybe I should be asking for a video, or description of sbc top end oiling at rpm when warm? Does the pushrod oiling spray hard enough that oil is dripping all over the springs already? Anyone have spintron footage that shows the oiling in action?

[dannobee]

The spray bars are to cool the valve springs with oil, not for lubrication. The oil can then carry the heat out through the oil cooler(s).

If the cam is streetable, the only thing you'd likely see is higher oil consumption as the oil spray will likely flood the valve stems. And in a street car, you won't be tearing it down frequently and checking everything.

[Mike Laws]

If a guy were to use these on the typical10.5:1 street/strip small block with moderate cam, aluminum heads w/ roller rockers, and melling hv pump. would special valve seals be needed?

Hardin marine makes a nice piece that makes fitting very simple. and feeding it from the oil temp or pressure port of the 880 block is very straight forward. is my thinking wrong in believing that it would help valve springs live longer with basically no downsides?

I would love to hear from those that have actually used these, or the moroso pieces and their results.

I've literally built and installed thousands of valve spring oilers into valve covers from every Cup-Team to PS to street/strip cars. Moroso & others (famously) copied mine because I was not smart enough to patent them at the time.

There is no down side, only up. Never rely on drip or spray from the pushrods because spring oscillation (up/down movement) causes a fan-like barrier around the spring. The oil must be injected into the spring to be effective.

The injected oil cools single spring applications that build heat due to work and cools & lubricates multiple springs that build heat due to friction and work.

Use 1 or 2 .026" holes per spring with a metering jet that controls each spray bar (1 per cylinder head). The metering jet hole size can be from .026-.040, depending on need. On your engine; I recommend .026 hole size for each spring with a .026 metering jet per side. You will only need to change springs due to life-cycle, not due to friction or work.

[Roundybout]

You’d be amazed how hot springs can get even after just a short period of time. Watch any spintron or high speed valve train video and see. Anything you can do to cool down that area of the valve train is a plus.

[Bill Chase]

If a guy were to use these on the typical10.5:1 street/strip small block with moderate cam, aluminum heads w/ roller rockers, and melling hv pump. would special valve seals be needed?

Hardin marine makes a nice piece that makes fitting very simple. and feeding it from the oil temp or pressure port of the 880 block is very straight forward. is my thinking wrong in believing that it would help valve springs live longer with basically no downsides?

I would love to hear from those that have actually used these, or the moroso pieces and their results.

I've literally built and installed thousands of valve spring oilers into valve covers from every Cup-Team to PS to street/strip cars. Moroso & others (famously) copied mine because I was not smart enough to patent them at the time.

There is no down side, only up. Never rely on drip or spray from the pushrods because spring oscillation (up/down movement) causes a fan-like barrier around the spring. The oil must be injected into the spring to be effective.

The injected oil cools single spring applications that build heat due to work and cools & lubricates multiple springs that build heat due to friction and work.

Use 1 or 2 .026" holes per spring with a metering jet that controls each spray bar (1 per cylinder head). The metering jet hole size can be from .026-.040, depending on need. On your engine; I recommend .026 hole size for each spring with a .026 metering jet per side. You will only need to change springs due to life-cycle, not due to friction or work.

Do you find it increased oil consumption, or required a better type of valve stem seal on the typical street strip small blocks to keep them from being oil burners?

[mt-engines]

Do you find it increased oil consumption, or required a better type of valve stem seal on the typical street strip small blocks to keep them from being oil burners?

It will only increase consumption if your intake valves have a stupid amount of clearance. But if thats the case you have other problems as well.

If you have a small cam with little spring pressure, dont waste your time with an oiler. If you have a bunch of rocker arm, fast lobes and high lift the money spent will make itself up in valve springs quickly.

An old neighbor of mine who raced pro stock back in the day machined his own spring cups to hold the oil, they looked like they were made of beryllium copper or moldstar 90.

I have the spring oiler mod on my shaft rockers for my drag week engine, just in case. but i also have an extra set of springs, lifters etc. anything to help helps. but lets face it it really isnt a street engine. its streetable.

[BOOT]

Can't rem where i read it or what it exactly said but was something like a 3rd or more of oil heat is from springs.

I've been interested in spring oilers but not messed with them yet

[Mike Laws]

Do you find it increased oil consumption, or required a better type of valve stem seal on the typical street strip small blocks to keep them from being oil burners?

A well built spray-bar will not increase oil consumption. The 'amount' of oil used for each spring is very small and by the time the oil hit & coats the springs, little to none gets inside the springs.

[FuelieNova]

Several years ago I used a set of BLP covers with oilers on a street/strip engine in my Nova. Didn't do anything special and had no problems. As far as valve seals, I used whatever seals Spire uses in his heads.
Tom