No oil to rockers

[snowbound98]

Ya it's one of those things that I want to let it run but if I'm not getting oil to cam bearings, lifters or rockers I don't wanna take any more life off this engine. I have way too much money invested in it and it's a custom ground camshaft that is also getting starved. Believe me I wish I could get sprayed with oil and have that piece of mind. I'll look like an idiot if I tear it all down go back to shop and raise hell and everything is ok. I was just hoping someone had a good to tell me that I'm overlooking. But thanks for ur advise. I will definitely recheck before pulling it out again.

[snowbound98]

Ok so here's an update. I let the engine run again and still nothing. I called the machine shop and told them what was going on and they said that maybe I don't have the proper preload on the lifters and its causing them not to pump oil up. I kinda got a little upset and told them that I'm not an idiot and I have em adjust right. I tried 1/4-3/4 turn of preload and still nothing. He went on to explain that some LS engines take 1 1/4 turn of preload. So I explained to him that it's a vortec 350 so I don't care what an LS uses for preload. I hear his tech in the background saying that maybe my lifter bores are trashed and it's dumping off. So I told him that no that's not it cuz they were tight and slowly slid down when I installed them. Then he asks me how I primed the oil system. I was getting a little pissed that he's talking to me like I'm an idiot. I'm an ASE certified technician and I know what I'm doing so I explained to him not so kindly that I prime the system the same way he does. I inserted my oil priming tool and spun it til I saw 55lbs of pressure and then kept going for a good full minute. Then after all that and me getting pissed he tells me that there's no way the cam bearing is causing this cuz the bearings they used have the groove all the way around it on the back side of the bearing so even if they covered the hole it would still get there. So I was like then why couldn't u tell me this in the first place and I wouldnt have been talking to you this long. After getting that news I removed the intake and distributor and the front rocker, push rod, and lifter. Primed the system again and did see oil in lifter bore. Good news! So I primed lifter that was collapsed and it came right back up and reinstalled everything. Fired it up again but this time I let it run for about 6 minutes knowing that cam and everything else was getting good pressure. At that 6 min mark I started to see a little oil working up to rear rockers so I raised idle a bit and sure enough the lifters started pumping. Thank god! So now it runs great sounds good and been driving past 2 days. I have never built an engine and had this problem before this one. I guess all I can do is chaulk it up to a good lesson learned. I just hope maybe someone reading this can learn from my mistake and be a little more patient then I was. Cottontop was correct. I needed to wait for it to come around. Good call there cottontop. But when u got ur hard earned money sittin there and u think it's rubbing metal to metal it's easy to get paranoid and think the worst.