I have a 1955 Crown Vic with a 1961 292 in it that My dad gave me before he passed away 1 1/2 years ago, Trying to work all the bugs out of this thing. He either had motor rebuilt or cleaned it up on inside it's not all slugded up. So I started hearing a lot of clattering under valve covers & decided to adjust rocker arms & when I had valve covers off I decided to run engine to see how well it was oiling, left side had plenty of oil flowing & right side had hardley any, so I pulled rocker shafts & right side was pretty much worn out. I then pulled out the distrubutor & hooked up my drill to run the oil pump - left side started oiling & it took another 20 seconds to get oil up to right side head & it seemed like it was not flowing as much as left side. I then took rocker shaft from left side & bolted it on right side & ran the drill again, the oil never even made it to front drain pipe or to front 2 rockers, maybe my drill doen't spin as fast as the engine running?? I then took same rocker shaft & put it on left side & ran pump & oil flows all the way to front rockers, so my question is It can't really be the cam bearing hole not lined up or not deep enough groove in camshaft because one side oils just fine- I shot a bunch of carb cleaner down oil gally in head & blew it out with air but it didn't help. Maybe I should put it back together & run engine without valve covers on to see if it is oiling now, maybe I had a plugged shaft on right side??

Actually it can be the bearings.  The way the loads are applied to the cam, the passenger's (starter) side tends to stop oiling before the driver's (oil filter) side due to bearing wear.

You probably have a grooved cam.  An easy way to check is to turn the engine a little bit at a time while pumping oil with the drill.  If it is cross drilled, flow will stop at some point.  If it is grooved, it will continue to flow.



Lawrenceville, GA

The oil passage from the block through the head to the rockers is the likely culprit. It has a dogleg right at the head that can get plugged up with sludge. I don't think any amount of carb cleaner will clear it, you'll need to pull the head and clear it out with  pipe cleaners or a very small brass brush. Carb cleaner WILL help with the process. New rocker shafts are available and your rockers can be rebuilt. 

It could also be just the shaft on that side is plugged. Slide the rockers over and check to see if any oil holes are plugged. Using solvents in the head passage isn't really a good idea, it tends to wash the crap back to the cam and bearing. We did it as a temp solution once knowing the engine was going to be rebuilt in the near future.
A lot of the factory replacement cams were made with cross drilled oil holes, I don't know why, I have a brand new one for a 64 truck done that way..

I will definitely change the oil before starting up. 

All the videos I seen on YouTube it was always the right side that wasn't oiling, doesn't make sense to me but then again this is my first Y block, I guess I'll find out if I have to take it apart.

you will get lots of contraversey on this topic. myidea is dismant rocker shafts,remove core plugs(use a tap that goes into core plug, turn it wile threading ,plug will come out, use a rod and drive other plug out,clean all thecrap out,,run a s/16 tap threw the stand wher the bleed tub is,grind the end of the capscrew so the bolt seales off the hole as well asholding the stand in position. assemble rockers ,with no bleed off your chances of decent lube to all rockers is90%.with bleed off tubes in place no presure is built and most rockers get little and no oil and sludge builds up. if you dont get oil to all then your isue is deeper. easy cheap way to see how far you need to go.

I might just try that, at this point I don't think I have anything to loose.

Try running the drill with the rocker shaft removed to see if oil is even getting thru the head.  Dave

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