Dry Valve Train on Massey 50 Continues

A few days ago I posted an issue I am having with a freshly rebuilt Massey 50. The valve train area is not getting oil. So I took all your comments into perspective and I started digging into the issue. I checked the rocker arm bar like you guys had said to make sure that was correct, and it was. So I pulled the rockers and tried to put a screw driver down the oil inlet hole on the head but it 90's soon after so it was no help. But it is dry. I tried turning the engine over till it built good oil pressure and nothing ever came out the hole. So I figured maybe I put the head gasket on wrong. Tore that all apart and pulled the head and low and behold.... the head gasket is on correctly! I stick a screw driver down this hole and it is dry as a bone. So my question now is, where do I go from here? The diagram looks like the oil comes from the rear main bearing but it's hard to tell. The bottom end must be getting decent oil because I have 6 hours on the tractor and it hasn't seized yet and the bottom of the push rods had oil on them, so it's got to be good down in that lower section. Question now is, why isn't the oil coming up to the head? Any insight here would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the ramble.

Josh

Is that engine a Z134 Continental? They get oil from the rear main, through the rear camshaft bearing and up into the rockershaft. If your cam bearing was not registered with the oil holes , that would cause your problem.

Yes this is the Z134 engine. Is it possible to put these bearings in backwards? I remember an oil slot in them but I didn't think you could put them in wrong. thought they were fool proof.

Probably mostly grunge in the passage. I made a plate on my Z145 with that problem that held a Shrader valve over the oil passage and was held in place with a bolt in the rocker arm post bolt hole. I filled the passage with a penetrating oil, then bolted down the plate and applied 100 psi from the air hose. I repeated several times over a week or two of soaking and pushing. When pressure showed up on the oil pressure gauge, I took off the plate and cranked the engine and oil came up the passage. It might have been better then to have applied air pressure at the gauge port to blow the grunge up, but that pressure would be relieved down below. And the oil pump is applying pressure down there while the engine is running. Lots of soaking and some vacuum might have worked too, main thing is to loosen the grunge in the passageway and to move it out somewhere would be a benefit.

I doubt the pressure gauge will show pressure if the cam shaft bearing has shifted.

Gerald J.

I would be concurned wherethere the pump is working. If you used assembly lub it is possiable it will run awhile before it locks.

As Jerry/mt said it could be your cam bearing. If the hole is not lined up you will starve the top end of oil. Engine hasn't seized yet but what damage is it doing to the valve train. Steven

The oil pressure gauge is in the main oil gallery which is above the camshaft so it"s possible to see oil presure on the gauge with the rear cam bearing hole out of register with the upper oil passage to the rocker support.
However, as you point out, it is also possible for the drilled oil passage to be plugged also.

The MF Repair Manual will take you step by step. It sounds like you have short cut something, probably by trying to get by with an IT Manual. Tom

It"s been run for 6 hours since the rebuild. I doubt the assembly lube would last that long in the cylinders. Plus the oil pressure gauge says 50ish psi and the bottoms of the push rods had good oil coverage.

The cam bearing was fine when I took the engine apart and I never replaced it. Same Cam bearing as the day the tractor rolled off the assembly floor. Guy that owns the tractors has had it from day one.

I'm by means no expert, but if you still have the motor open, i would force oil down the oil passage from the head side, and see if the oil will come throught somewhere from the underside. That way you can figure out, if the passage is blocked, or if oil is escaping somewhere en route to the valve train.

So the entire engine hasn"t been rebuilt. Was it oiling the rockers before you touched it?
Try presurizing the oil passage under the rocker support with air as Gerald J. suggested and see if it"s obstructed.

It's possible that the rear main bearing is installed incorrectly. This will also starve the rear cam bearing of oil as well as the valvetrain.

Wasn't entirely rebuilt but all the main components were. not sure if it was getting oil to the rockers prior to disassembly because I didn't really pay attention. The tractor has been running forever so the thought never crossed my mind.
I did apply high pressure air to the oil hole on the top of the block (head removed) and it did not seem to go through. Instead it came back out the hole I was blowing it in even though I made the seal between my air nozzle and the air as tight as I could. From the top of the block in the IT diagram it looks like it goes down to the rear main bearing where it splits, one way heading back twoards the pump the other heading twoard the oil pressure gauge port. Is this correct or does the iol line from the top of the block go elsewhere? Just trying to figure out where the obstruction might be.