4age starting problem

[kingmick]

Or if you drop a valve.
unsual to get a sicky bucket in a 4ag but anything can happen at time! Might have a flogged spring.

[bmak]

Its going to be a matter of pulling it down anyway so i think i might as well drive & see if it frees up. The head had 40thou taken off on the 1st head gasket change at the start of the year & nothing has changed since so i doubt any piston contact has happened.
The motor has done over 230000k so i doubt anything is to tight a clearance these days. When the motor is warm the comp gauge shows 178,180,180,183 so the valves are seating good on all cylinders.
One this is i use 25-60 oil as it tends to use a bit on long trips on anything lighter.

Here is a pic of where the bucket is sticking.

[bmak]

just an update
did around 500k's today and it ran perfect. I'll wait & see if it has any problems when cold tomorrow.
It has a big oil leak from the front of the motor somewhere now

[Cuzzo]

The big oil leak could be comming from your cam seals. I just fixed mine.

[bmak]

just fixed it.
Crank seal had popped out. Was going to put some sealer on the new one to make sure it couldn't come out but as i was checking to see how tight it fits i pushed it in a little too far
I guess if it comes back out I'll fix it then.

[bmak]

Ok today the cam buckets were sticking again. With the cam cover off i turned the motor over slowly while cold and at least 2 buckets didn't follow the cam lobe.
Would the oil i changed too just be sticky enough when the motor is cold it keeps them down? Or is there no chance it could overcome spring pressure?
For awhile now Ive used shell helix 25-60 but when i changed the head gasket i put in gulf western 25-60

[Grega]

i reckon that oil is too thick brad
i put castrol gtx3 in my 100kw motor. (15w-40)
25w-60 would be ok for an old holden motor matey.

[jonra23]

When you changed the head gasket did you remove the valve buckets, if so did you put them back in the same place or did any of them get dropped.

regards
jon

[bmak]

When you changed the head gasket did you remove the valve buckets, if so did you put them back in the same place or did any of them get dropped.

regards
jon

6 months ago when i did the 1st gasket i removed them when the head was machined but they went back into original locations. This time they stayed in the head.

i reckon that oil is too thick brad
i put castrol gtx3 in my 100kw motor. (15w-40)
25w-60 would be ok for an old holden motor matey.

I just drained the oil & went and got some shell 15-50. I used to use this but found consumption was a bit excessive with this motor(234000k).
I'll see how is goes tomorrow morning. Hopefully this will be the cheap fix as i thing the only other thing to do is remove the head again & check valve & spring pressure.

[Ben Wilson]

6 months ago when i did the 1st gasket i removed them when the head was machined but they went back into original locations. This time they stayed in the head.

I'd be pulling the cams and pulling the buckets out. I'm guessing that some swarf from the machining is catching in there. If you're lucky there won't have been too much damage.

[bmak]

I pulled a couple cam buckets out & everything still looked fine.
After running around town for a couple of days on the thinner oil this morning it started perfect.
I'm surprised that running an oil of a different brand made that much difference. I'll see how oil usage is on this thinner stuff as I've now fixed all leaks.
Thanx to everyone for there input.

[Grega]

brad, its not the brand matey its the weight of the oil thats made the difference
some years back i remember an OHC ford motor - someone putting 20w-50 in it and killing it due to the thickness of the oil.
should feel a bit more lively too due to the new oil too.

[bmak]

Is this case it can only be brand change that made difference as ive been using shell 25-60 for about a year with no problems. The gulf western is the exact same grade but thats when the problem started.

[Grega]

brad thats strange....although i remember eleventy billion years ago my 800cc suzuki would only run on duckhams oil..........otherwise the PCV would clog up the carby (excessive blow by) lol

are u using the shell 15w-50 or 25w-60 (confused?)

[bmak]

i used shell 15-50 when i 1st got this car but as i take it on a few long trip @ up to 5krpm it used way too much oil.
About a year ago i changed to shell 25-60 & this helped oil usage a fair bit.
The other week when i changed head gasket i chucked in gulf western 25-60 and that's when problems started.
I have now put shell 15-50 back in & it seems to have solved the problem. I have also seen a penrite 10-60 that may be the choice for easy starting & less oil consumption.