VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1955-1957 235 Engine Number 3837004

Friend bought a '50 pickup with a newer 235 engine to me for a tuneup. It had tremendous valve train noise, so I asked him what he knew about the engine. He told me a fellow gave it to him said, "It was running when I took it out of the car." I removed the valve cover, NO OIL coming to the valve train. 15 Pounds Oil pressure at 1,000 RPM. My '54 235 runs 50 to 55 pounds at 1,000 RPM even when warm. He said the guy told him he had just installed a new set of hydraulic valve lifters. I attempted to adjust them, but no response, felt like they are all flat, no oil in the lifters at all. I suspect either a bad oil pump or rod/main bearings worn out. So much valve noise hard to hear but think I can hear at least one rod knocking. Told him I couldn't tune up his engine until we knew for sure we had an engine to tune up!

Question, can someone tell me for sure if this engine is supposed to have hydraulic lifters? I looked up the engine number but all it says is '55 to '57 235 engine block. Reason for question is another friend put hydraulic liters in his 235, did't run well, lots of noise, fnally discovered that it wasn't set up for hydraulic lifters, I understand some trucks didn't have hydraulics. I don't know where the engine came from or what it was in, and neither does the current owner. On other hand, don't think hydraulic lifters in an engine not set up for hydraulic would cause loos of oil pressure.

Thanks for any help,

Ron

Hey..I think someone else will jump in but I'm pretty sure after 54 all 235's were hydralic lifters..That being the case I would pull a bunch of lifters, never heard of all them collapsing at once. Lack of oil maybe the only thing wrong. PB Blaster and start over. Bill

If no oil to the top end and lifters won't adjust then the wrong lifters may have been installed as you may have guessed. You are right, most truck 235's I've encountered had solid lifters.Chevgene on this chat has the most reliable knowledge of Chev engines of that era.Perhaps he will chime in.
Absolute oil psi number can vary all over depending on many variables. 15 psi @ 1000 rpm ,if its an accurate number, is sufficient to oil the motor .

theAll 1956 and 1957 car engines had hyd. lifters. All truck engines had solids.
All 1956 and 1957 235 blocks had the 3837004 casting number.
The Hyd. lifter blocks were drilled differently....There was a passage that went from lifter bore to lifter bore and the oil filled passage supplied the oil to pump up the lifters.(hyd lifer enines only) A great amount of pressure is not necessary to pump up a lifter as the piston inside of the lifter is what fills the lifter.
The lifter oil pasage is filled from the rear cam bearing which is in turn fed by the rear main bearing journal. A pipe for sending oil up to the rocker arms is also fed from the same sorce. You will find an oil line is the rear lower corner of the push rod compartment. This brings oil up to the center top of th compartment. From there the oil passes around a gap in the head gasket and them up through the head to the rocker arm oil line.
The truck enines had no oil going to the lifter gallery It didn't have the gallery) as they were designed for solid lifter. The rocker arm oil passage frequently plugged-up with sludge and no oil would get to the rocker arms.
Some very late 1957 car blocks had the redesigned lifter oil supply that the 1958 and up engines used. It did not have an oil line in the push rod compartment and the oil for the lifterd was fed by the front and rear main bearing--and when met in the center of the block the oil passage wen up to the center of the block and to the rocker arms.
A Hyd. lifter cam must run Hyd. lifters or the idle will be very rough. If solid lifters are used on a Hd. cam the valves will be very noisey and can't be adjusted to quiet downThe solid lifterssused with the later oiling system were cur down in the center like a Hyd. so the oil could get from lifter to lifter.
The number stamped into the ledge on the block behind the distributor will ID the engine.

The engine serial number is: F 7 I I A Can anyone tell me for certain if this engine should have solid or hydraulic lifters?


We have pulled the pan, full of goo. Removed the oil pump and have a new one to put back in. Removed side cover and verified that the engine does have hydraulic valve lifters, but am not certain that it should have hydraulics. I am suspicious of the knowledge of the guy who says he installed new Hydraulic lifters. Wonder if it had Hydraulics originally or if he really doesn't know that there is a difference between solids and hydraulics???

Removed the rocker arms, the shafts are completely clogged with sludge so will be cleaning them. Removed the feed line to the rockers, it too is plugged solid so will be cleaned.


Am planning to install the new oil pump and of course fresh oil, then use my handy dandy screw driver shank in my electric drill to run the oil pump without running the engine. By the way, I do this on all my rebuilds before starting the engine. It purges all the air out of the passages, assures me that the rockers are oiling properly and makes sure all the bearings are fully oiled before I crank it up. Eliminates the bearings running dry until the air is purges and all passages are full of oil.

This will let me be sure oil is coming to the fitting in the lower rear of the valve train compartment. If so, oil line re-installed and more turns on the oil pump. If oil comes out of the top end of the tube, then the rockers go back in and turned again to see that I have oil coming out of every rocker. After that, install the distributor, time the engine and fire it up.

Still want to be sure I know if it needs solids or hydraulic lifters.

Thanks for any input on this engine.

Ron

The engine number ending in an A indicates it is from a passenger car with a three speed transmission. That would indicate it left the factory with hyd. lifters.

OK, thanks a lot. That means for some reason oil just isn't getting to the lifters. Sounds like I will have to pull the engine and see if it is getting past all the mains and rods, or the cam bearings have turned blocking off the passage to the lifter gallery. Thanks again, Ron

Chey nut, I also have a 56 235 engine that has #F56VC on the block. This means it was in a 3100 truck. It has hydraulic lifters. I am working on it but have not had it runing. Is it posible that some trucks had hydraulic lifters if maybe they were hydrmatic transmissions? I have to believe that at one time this engine ran. Don't understand why it has hydraulic lifters if you say trucks had solids.

No truck engines had Hyd. lifters. The block was not drilled for lifter oiling in truck engines.
A VC block is from a 1/2-3/4 ton truck with a heavy duty clutch option.
The engine number ended in a "W" for a 1/2 ton with Hydra.....and it also had solid lifters.

Chev Nut, Maybe I don't have hydraulic lifters. The lifters are 2and 9/16th.tall and about 1 in. in diameter. There is a hole in the side about 11/16ths. up from the bottom. It is dished in at the top with a hole. Looks like a black band around the inside top. There seems to be nothing inside. Just hollow. The block has about a 3/8ths. hole borred parallel to the side of the block between each lifter bore.

That is a solid lifter.

Chev nut, thanks for the information. Don't know how I could be so stupid to think I had hydraulic ones in the frist place. When i saw the hole in the top i just assumed they were hydraulic.