How much oil should be left in the cambox?

[maytag]

Hey y'all!
I had to pop the distributor for a minute, to get to the firewall.
is this much oil left in the cambox NORMAL?


and WHERE does the oil drain to?
I can't believe I've never looked... but I did tonight, with a spare cambox I had. I don't see any obvious drain-backs.
where is it draining to?

[BEEK]

yes the amount of oil in the cam box is normal, is it necessary, in my opinion no. i have raced these cars for many years. the problems i found are in the oiling system. you have to run the system over full to keep from uncovering the oil pump in hard cornering. one of the solutions i found was to drill 1/2" holes in the drain backs in the cam housings. these are cast in 2 on each side, by drilling holes in each of them the amount of oil left in the housing was reduced by 60%. i have had no camshaft failures ever. and i was able to run less oil in the crankcase. there are some pan modifications too that help alot. i will try and post a picture of exactly what im talking about real soon.

[So Cal Mark]

oil is used to cool the valve springs

[Daniel]

The Oil is used to cool the cams and springs and what beek is talking about relocating the oil return hole i've been doing
for over 20 years. With that being said the point where you drill a new hole is important and even more so while using
today's oils which have less zinc then years ago . I wouldn't concern yourself about drilling holes in the cam towers
on a street car, lowering the amount of oil in your system isn't a benefit. This modification was widely used by racers
on TC Fiat Engines to control the build up of oil in the cam towers causing high and low levels in the oil pan during
hard cornering. I found if you use a high volume oil pump and the stock oil returns that this problem would be more
prevalent. The stock oil pumps seem to work fine with the oiling systems in these engines under normal driving
conditions .

[maytag]

The Oil is used to cool the cams and springs and what beek is talking about relocating the oil return hole i've been doing
for over 20 years. With that being said the point where you drill a new hole is important and even more so while using
today's oils which have less zinc then years ago . I wouldn't concern yourself about drilling holes in the cam towers
on a street car, lowering the amount of oil in your system isn't a benefit. This modification was widely used by racers
on TC Fiat Engines to control the build up of oil in the cam towers causing high and low levels in the oil pan during
hard turning . I found if you use a high volume oil pump and the stock oil returns that this problem would be more
prevalent. The stock oil pumps seem to work fine with the oiling systems in these engines under normal driving
conditions .

c'mon guys.... really?
I asked and asked and asked about higher volume oil pumps, and nobody seemed to know anything about them, or where to find them. So I said a prayer over the old one, and put it back in.
And while I never asked the question, so it's my fault ... it would've been really nice if someone had mentioned drilling oil return holes in the cam towers for a car that has always been intended as an occasional track-day car.....

Sunnuva!!

alright... i'm over it.

Daniel. can you point me to a high-volume oil pump for this car?
And would one of y'all mind detailing the oil-drain-back modification, so next time I'm into the motor I can do it?

thanks guys!

[Daniel]

Sure you can make your stock oil pump a high volume unit by changing the relief spring
when the oil pump is out, you need to know what spring to use I have them somewhere
but not sure where at the moment. If you want to change yours over let me know I'll be glad
to walk you through the process.

Drain backs in the cam towers need to be drilled half way down from the stock location using
2 holes side by side 3/4 inchs in size.

Another mod many people used to do even myself was to plug the oil passages that feed the cam towers
in the head and drill them with a smaller hole to reduce the volume of oil delivered to the towers but after
finding out that the oil flow really needed to cool the springs and cams I stopped doing this .

[BEEK]

oil is used to cool the valve springs

the amount of oil retained in the upper cam housing has no effect on how much is there to cool the springs, this oil is below the cam housing btw i made a set of spring oilers, when i restricted the flow to the cam bearing areas. again never had problems to 9krpm for 2 hours