Found this statement on the net, any truth in it???

Remember to clean inside the shafts if you re-use old shafts. FE 352 390 shaft plugs will fit the ends or you can make your own. One more thing.,, Peen over that overflow tube on the end support or plug the hole it goes into! This pressurizes the shaft and raises the oil pressure in the system. The overflow is like a leak on both sides. My 56 800 Ford tractor 172 engine had the same system and my newer Ford manual says to plug it.  Letting the oil squeeze out between the rockers and shaft makes sense to me. 

1957 ________________ Ford

\___((_______________))___/

(@)________V__________(@)

[________I_____I_________]

__[__]__ o_______o___[__]___



Y Blocks, The New Flathead!

This discussion keeps going around, some say plug them, some say don't.  My take is this: the overflow tubes are there to make sure the rocker shafts stay full, and drip oiling is what lubes the rockers.  If you plug the overflow tubes, all the oil to the rockers has to flow through two small drains, one at each end of the head.  The drains cannot handle this much oil, so it fills the rocker area until it can drain through the pushrod holes.  This makes the oil level in the head high enough to cover the tops of the valve guides, causing serious oil consumption.  Also, the rocker cover gaskets are now submerged in oil.  The tractor head, if I remember, has a different drain system, the top of the head is sloped toward the pushrod holes, so that's where the drain is anyway.  I may be wrong about this, I haven't seen a Ford tractor head in a long time.  My Massey Ferguson head is like this, but it is a Continental engine, not a Ford.

John in Selma, IN

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

john's right & the other problem is blocking of the tubes air cannot bleed out causing less oil in the rocker tubes. moz.

moz. geelong victoria australia.

graduate 1980, bus, truck, car, hot rod, boat, submarine, hovercraft, hydrafoil, firetruck, mobile home, jet, helicopter, cruise ship, motorcycle, bicycle, santa's sleigh, clock, alloy bullbar, alloy fuel tank, lens, dr who's tardis, matter - anti matter warp drive buffer & y-block lover

If Ford had wanted them pressurized, they would have done that, they didn't. Might be a lesson there. Second, Mummerts engines, and Feistritzer's engines don't have the the tubes choked off. Neither has oiling issues. The oil is restricted to some degree in the passages past the cam and in the head/ block interface, so the blocking the drip tubes won't really help your oil pressure.  

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Here’s a previous post regarding rocker arm oiling.

http://www.y-blocksforever.com/forums/Topic10464-3-1.aspx

Performing a search using ‘rocker oiling’ will bring up more on the subject.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)