Possible bearing issue?

[Sulli]

Hi Deve, it's been a while since I last posted as I've been enjoying cruising in my truck (49 Chevy with a 1954 - 235 and 3 speed). Recently, it had been hard to start, so I started looking at the timing by using the static timing method on your site (works like a charm btw) found out the culprit was likely the rust on the tip of the rotor... While i was hand turning the engine to get it to be at TDC, I noticed that it was harder to turn even with all the plugs out. On top of that, it was making a distinct hard creaking sound from somewhere inside the engine, almost like a bolt that is being over-tightened, or a dry leaf spring pivot which made me think metal on metal, slipped bearings, or something worse. Any thoughts on what it could be?

Despite my better judgement, I wanted to see if I could start the it, and managed to to get it running. I let it idle while I got the timing right, and blipped the gas a few times. Sounded ok, seemed to idle fine so I shut it off, but felt like I would be mothballing it for a while until I figured out what was causing the squeak. I haven't tried to turn it by hand since I last ran it, so I don't know if lube found its way in there to stop the squeaking.

I've always wanted to learn how to do a rebuild, but machine shop cost/time is something that I am not looking forward to in terms of setting up the block and head, not to mention buying any new engine parts. Budget is my biggest concern and I've already convinced myself that the snowball effect of trying to change power plant type isn't really in my grasp either.

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated!
mark

[Deve]

Sulli, my hope is that Dave will chime in here because he has way more experience with worn engines than I do. Some noises are normal after the engine hasn't been started in awhile, while some are not. There really isn't a way to know for sure until you do some investigating. A stethoscope to listen for where exactly the noise is coming from, removing the valve cover to see if the rockers are rocking normally (no bent rods), etc is a start. Very hard for me to armchair troubleshoot, but Dave would have some better information I am sure.

[Pre68Dave]

I am with Deve on this. Sounds like you may not be getting oil to the rockers.

[Sulli]

I have been driving it every weekend for the past year with no real issues, so I'm hopeful it could just be a rocker and not the bottom end. I actually pulled the valve cover this past weekend and everything was wet with oil up there and almost seemed like too much for not being run in over a week. I had adjusted the valves a year ago and let the engine run with the cover off, and did observe oil weeping out of the rockers back then, but I'm sure something could have changed. Also, when I had the cover off this weekend, I was able to spin all the rods with my fingers easily. None of them seemed to wobble off center when I spun them, so I don think any are bent.
Is it possible that one of the solid lifters is sticking at the cam? I won't be able to dig into it until this weekend, but will report back if I find anything along the lines of your gut feeling.

If I do find that one or some rockers aren't getting oil, is the fix to clean the oil supply tube, and or disassemble and clean out the rocker assembly? Thanks for the quick response!

[Sulli]

Ok, so i think you were spot on with your assessment. Prior to me noticing the noise, the truck wasn't starting, and with the slow spinning 6v starter, and two different rounds of me trying to start the engine after it sat for 2 weeks, probably meant that I did two things:

1. Starved the valve train by spinning the motor at least 5-6 times for about 10 seconds at a time on two different occasions (slow 6v spin probably means not enough oil made it to the top)
2. During each of these startup trial sessions, I could smell fuel and see it leaking at the base of the carb. I'm thinking that the cylinder walls were washed down with fuel... (not good for engine longevity)

As mentioned before, I did get it started, and let it run for at least 5 minutes before I first posted on your forum, and I think everything got properly lubed up at that time. Today, i popped the valve cover so I could hear if the noise was coming from up top rather than the bottom end. I am happy to say that I didn't hear anything up top, inside, or down low. I also used a 3/4" driver to turn the motor at the crank rather than use the fan/fan belt and didn't hear anything other than cylinders sucking in air. No squeaks.

Through the course of learning how to make this old truck happy and run right, this is probably the third or fourth time that I was pretty certain that I killed the engine. That probably makes me a hypo-Mech-condriac or something.

Thanks for your assistance!
mark

[Neverdone]

Hello Mark ,Deve ,
I am posting this question here because you start this discussion with reference to a rotor and it's the latest post and better chance of being seen.
My 261 had a little miss so I pulled the cap and found this ... a broken rotor would anyone have a part number for this rotor ? NAPA ...O'Reilly's...where? EBAY ?
THANKS !!
Dan

[Neverdone]

Though I added picture???

[Deve]

Sure thing. It's a Standard Motor Products DR308. I get them at rockauto.com. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...25944&jsn=2201
The WVE part number is 4R1058 https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...25944&jsn=2200