I am in the process of bringing back to life a 59 Merc with the 383 in it. I have started the motor, and everything so far sounds good other than the oiling on the top end of the motor. I am used to cars like the small block chevys where they have oil coming through the push rods and then down to the rockers. If you ran the car without the valve covers, you would make a mess. For the most part, I get oil out of every rocker arm that is on the rocker arm shaft, just not as much as I expected considering prior experience. I know that the oiling system on this old engine is different than what I am used to, but my question is: Should I be concerned about the amount of oil for each rocker arm? It moves enough oil that the engine actually runs pretty quiet. Thanks in advance!
Get a gauge on it and see what the pressure is. If the pressure is good and you got flow uptop - your O.K. Oldmics
Probably not going to see as much oil like a sbc,the more you run it the more oil you will probably see since there could be some sludge slowing it down some.