Tappet guides

[cranelift1]

Hi Folks
 I noticed the small angled holes drilled in the sides of the tappet guides (similar to a previous thread from selmawp on valve guides) and wondered if they should face any particular way or it doesn't matter. These holes do not show in the manual. They are for lube oil I think, but would be too small for splashed oil to go up the slanted holes. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks, Steve.   

[cranelift1]

Update, Sorry I should have mentioned in the last thread that I have George's CD and it has a great section on tappets and guides. No mention of the small holes in the guides though. Maybe no need to worry about it? Mostly curiosity on my part. As an after thought, after installing the cyl. and pistons, I realized I put the pistons in the opposite cylinders as they were in. Was going to ask about that but it's so easy to swap I'm going out to do that right now. I know , how does one do that even though i have them marked? Well I gave the culprit a swift kick. He said it won't happen again. Thanks guys, Steve 

[Tom]

I would toss those guides and get a new set. They are not supposed to have holes in them, it causes the oil to run right down the guides and smoke like crazy. I bought a spare head and unbeknownst to me the guides that were install had those holes. You should have seen the smoke clouds.

Lister designed the heads to hold a pocket of oil around the springs and the mist from the spring compressing would keep the valve stems oiled. With the hole in them they won't do that.

[BruceM]

I suppose you could plug the holes with some high temp silicone if you cleaned them up with alcohol.

[cranelift1]

Hi guys,  These holes are in the tappet guides, not the valve guides.  The holes are far enough down on the guide to be under the deck in the crank case when installed. The holes are drilled at an angle perpendicular to the tappet and angled downward towards the outer circumference. That's why I'm not sure if it makes any difference in the way they face. Hope you can picture what I'm talking about.

[32 coupe]

Some have them others don't.
One of the tricks to get the lifter to rotate is to turn the guide until it does. So the hole will not line up with anything.
This does not always work but sometimes it will.
Those holes don't mean a thing. And don't ever think that splash oiling is "weak".
Just pull the dipstick while running and you will understand !
Doc

[BruceM]

It's true, splash oiling is a torrent, not a trickle.  Before I added my gravity flow bypass oil filter below the crankcase vent panel, I put a piece of scrap plexiglass on there and I got a big mess and could see nothing.  With the oil filter in place, with old cotton clothing as media, I actually get so much flow that the sump oil level drops 1/2 a quart right after starting since the filter fills to overflowing. 

[Hugh Conway]

Doc said "And don't ever think that splash oiling is "weak".
Just pull the dipstick while running and you will understand !"

I can vouch for that!


Cheers,
Hugh

[32 coupe]

Hugh,
You couldn't just take my word for it ?? !!!
Doc

[Hugh Conway]

It is an old photo Doc, should have see me before I cleaned up a bit! My wife thought it very amusing.
cheers,
Hugh

[mike90045]

So the piston wrist pin really does not run dry ?   That's great.

[Tom]

Oops, looks like I didn't read the original post carefully. So in the works of Rosana Rosana Dantana "never mind".

[Horsepoor]

I have two listeroids (twin & single) both engines have these holes. My two nearby listeroid owning friends each engine has them too. What I found is you can twist the base around so the holes face forwards, sideways, or backwards with respect to the rotation of the crankshaft. I've found or at least I preceive this allows you to introduce a little more oil splash into the angle drilled hole which provides more or less life sustaining oil to the rotating taplet. Personnally, I really like this feature, easy to adjust with a pipe wrench to twist the taplet guide around 90 or 180 degrees to evaluate the difference.

Also, each of us polished all the burrs off of the taplet shaft, cleaned up the spiral groove which was a mess. The results has been spinning taplets that function perfectly and get good lubrication. You got love these brutally simple machines.

[cranelift1]

That's good news. I already installed them and didn't feel like taking them out again. So if they turn in position with a pipe wrench, I'm golden. Thanks Lads. Steve.