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Lack of oil getting to rockershaft

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raybanky
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2016 8:50 am
Location: Prestatyn

Lack of oil getting to rockershaft

Post by raybanky »

Hello Everyone.

I am having a problem with a poor supply of oil getting to the valve rocker shaft of the engine of my 1937 LA14-1.

I have checked the rocker shaft for any blockages and there are none, also the oil delivery pipe to the shaft is clear.

I would be most grateful for any helpful advice to assist me to resolve this annoying problem

Please help if you can. :)

Ray B.

Simon Hyslop

Re: Lack of oil getting to rockershaft

Post by Simon Hyslop »

Earlier engines have a controllable feed to the rocker shaft but I don't know when they dropped this feature. I take it yours doesn't have an adjustable screw to alter the flow rate. Is it possible to disconnect the supply pipe at the block and run the engine to see if oil comes out ? Have you tried to blow back into the oil gallery to see if there's a clear passageway to the oil gallery. Any idea what the oil pressure is ? I presume there's just a light but the pressure required to put it out is very low so maybe rigging up a temporary oil gauge might be useful to see what the reading is.

Coincidentally, this is a problem which afflicts 1960s/70s Triumph engines and Rimmers offer an additional pipe to feed oil direct to the rocker pedestals. I have one fitted to three engines. A friend of mine has a recently bought 2500 and No.1 exhaust valve stuck last weekend due to a lack of lubrication so if you do have a shortage of oil feed, it is worth finding the problem sooner rather than later. He chose to buy shiny bits rather than an oil pipe.

Hard to know more beyond that really at a distance. I'm presuming your oil grade is right and there's plenty of oil in it. Do let us know how you get on as we need to identify the cause of problems like this.

classiclife
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Location: Ridgewood - East Sussex
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Re: Lack of oil getting to rockershaft

Post by classiclife »

Hello,

With regret I am going to have to disagree with Simon's advice regarding external oil feeds as quoted for Triumph engines. I apologise in advance Simon !!

Having been involved with Triumph engines for many decades at various levels, any Triumph owner who knows his onions will shudder on the spot when external oil feeds are mentioned. They are the absolute death knell of such engines be it 4x or 6x cylinder.

In essence, a significant amount oil is diverted from the main engine bearings to the external feed pipe and to the valve train. What now occurs is that the main bearings are running with reduced oil content and pressure - this leads to accelerated & substantial wear with the inevitable conclusion. In effect you are robbing Peter to pay Paul - it's a modification that is a pending disaster and you need only surf Triumph Forums to see the negative stance on these pipes.

Poor oil supply to the valve train is predominately down to wear & tear or in some cases bushes on the rocker shaft can move out of alignment with the oil feed hole reducing the amount of oil being ejected which is never great at the best of times.

The other advice given is the logical process of elimination, but diverting oil from the bottom end to the top end is not the long term solution or any solution to be honest.

Regards.

Richard.
1968 Daimler V8-250 Saloon
DLOC East Sussex Branch Secretary
DLOC 2.5L V8 & V8-250 Registrar - https://www.dloc.org.uk/v8-250
DLOC 2024 International Rally - https://www.dloc.org.uk/rally-2024

ranald
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Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2016 8:21 am
Location: North Wales

Re: Lack of oil getting to rockershaft

Post by ranald »

Hello Ray, Nice to hear from you on the Forum although sorry you have a problem. As you know, I don’t have the same Lanchester model so my contribution may not fit your car. Mine has a ball and spring at the end of the rocker which allows some pressure to build up in the shaft and another ball and spring at bottom of the external feed pipe. This discourages oil from dropping back into the engine when not running. If these are part of the LA 14 design, have you checked they are present. I agree a very very quick check with the external feed disconnected will ascertain if there is a flow. If would be useful to know if lack of oil is limited to the top of the engine or if there is generally low pressure. My engine suffered poor oil supply to the top and it turned out to be a partially blocked oilway through the main camshaft journal. With the oil feed disconnected I was able to shine a very narrow beamed torch into the block and with a friend turning the engine it was possible to observe when the oilway in the camshaft journal was aligned with the external feed pipe. Good luck. Ranald

JT7196
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Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:22 am

Re: Lack of oil getting to rockershaft

Post by JT7196 »

Hi Chaps, well I had the opposite problem with the engine on my LA11 ,having too much Oil up in the Rocker cover, in fact ,I actually made a Baffle Plate to try and reduce the amount of Oil that was getting into the Air Silencer Duct ,which would in turn leak out , I even resorted to making a Tapered Screw fitted into the Banjo Union on the Cylinder Head to try to reduce the flow, this only resulted in causing a large amount of Oil to leak out of the Rear Main, which of course ended up making a nasty mess wherever I was parked up ! !!
During the “Last” Engine rebuild ( Many of you would have probably read that sorry tale ! ! ) I found that the Rocker Shafts were very badly worn, fortunately, I was in possession of a couple of brand new ones, with these now in position all is now well, with no sign of excessive oil leaks ( Thank goodness) .
I’m afraid this little diatribe hasn’t resolved your problem though, but at least it may well help others , if they have encountered the same problem that I had.
Well that’s enough from me for one day, best wishes to you all out there, and Stay Safe ,
Best wishes Al 😊😊😊

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