1981 FXE/FL

So many questions.....

Winter turned into spring turned into summer and now fall project blues. Replaced top end with the stock spec S&S kit (barrels/pistons/heads). I thought, why not, and replaced my old oil pump as well. First time I fired it up I creamed my shorts, it was that smooth and sexy. In addition to the upper, I replaced my pipes and a ton of worn crap as well.... new paint... new bars.... yup, I lost my mind and redid the whole thing.

Got through the first 50 mile break-in and was continuing to break-in and begin tuning. At around 150 miles a had a bag full of fouled plugs..... carbon foul not oil foul and began working on proper jetting. Could not get the front cylinder to "follow" the rear.... it was always rich. During my top end rebuild I made the poor decision to reuse old valve train, so I got to thinking if that was the weakest link. Possibly a case of new S&S valve springs being too much for my worn out hydraulics (and they were worn for sure) causing my exhaust not to work properly and leaving too much fuel for the next charge?

Upgraded to the JIMS Powerglide kit (1029-53B) keeping my Andrews J cam.

Took it out today and I got oil leaking everywhere. Rocker boxes, pushrod tubes and so on.

As I read the description and installation instructions I was assured that it was a "bolt in mod" (yes, after checking clearances).

So here is my question..... the stock cast iron tappet block has drain holes at the base of the pushrod tubes..... the JIMS block does not. The JIMS tappets claim to be "EVO style" and the blocks are machined for them, so where and how does the oil coming down the tubes return to the chest?

Thanks,
Mike

 

the Andrews J cam is a solid lifter by the Andrews book of cams

pictures is best you are looking at it and saying this or that is shovel and maybe evo -- pictures is your friend in this

 

Andrews J is a very mild street cam.... just a tad bit hotter than OEM. I believe the rule of thumb for hydraulics to solids is lift. A cam with a lift height of .500 or greater becomes a solid cam (if my memory is correct). The J is nowhere near that.

But I did find the issue...... I hope....

As I pulled the cam cover off after tearing it down again, the cam came out with the cover so I can't be sure, but I think I may have timed the breather valve to to a mark.... but it wasn't "THE" mark. The breather gear has a line on it that I used as a timing mark. After I removed it and wiped it clean I could see that there was a teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy dot on one of the teeth...... good thing I was wearing my super reader glasses.

But what really ticked me off was I was running that S&S reed valve after I assembled the motor last winter which seemed to work fine. Why I went back to the breather gear is a mystery to me.

My hope is that there was an over pressure situation caused by breather gear timing and that was the cause of my oil leaks.

 

....as for how the new blocks drain oil, the tappets following the base circle move below a machined port in the block that allows oil to drain to the cams. Not sure how I missed that during installation.

 

Gotta watch the cam lobe ramp designs with shovels and solid lifters, why so many guys trashed their lifters making the switch. Isn't so much about lift as duration, a hyd. cam has steep ramps with a flatter top to hold the lift open longer due to the lift loss in the loose hyd. lifter design, solid cams have a more sloped ramp design with a sharper peak at top of lift not having to deal with that loss.

Look into Vthunder cams, I like them over Andrews any day with good hyd. lifters in.