VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Is the oil distributor valve necessary?

I have an Australian Holden-body Chevrolet roadster 1929 AC. When I was restoring the engine the strong advice I got from several sources was to remove the oil distributor valve from the oil distributor. The reason was that this would increase the flow of oil to the rockers, which people maintained could easily fall away to an inadequate level with the valve in place. I did that and there certainly was oil getting up to the top. Since then other people have said to put it back (usual story, everyone has a different opinion).
What is the prevailing opinion, anyone with strong views either way.
Thanks, Dave

The didtributor valve regulates the oil to the rocker gear only. 29's usually seem to need more oil up there than they get. One thing to watch is that you don't use a distributor valve from a four cyl Chev. It looks the same but has a stronger spring so results in even less oil to the rockers.
Without it you may get too much oil up there and cause increased oil consumption, or it may result in reduced oil to other parts of the motor, especially the centre main bearing which is a weakness in these motors.
Ian

Hi, Ian,
Thanks for the reply. I guess burning up the rocker arm bearings would be the lesser of the two evils here. Another approach is to assume that the people who built this engine actually knew what they were doing, therefore best to leave well alone.

I see you are in Sydney. This is a Brisbane car, but it followed me over to Norway when I got a job here.


Thanks,
DAve

The rocker arms do not need to be flooded with oil.I would leave it the way it was designed.If it was a year older you would be oiling it with an oil can every few hundred miles and it would survive.