Engine: Oil drainback question

[starliner62]

The last couple of Stude V-8 engines I rebuilt both had a load of gunk in the lifter valley, in the indentations beside the lifters. That nasty gray gooey stuff that takes forever to clean. At the shop where I work, the owner was rebuilding a V-8 Oldsmobile engine probably late seventies or early eighties. Looking at the lifter valley, the Olds engine had the same small pockets the the Stude engines do but, each little valley had about a quarter inch hole drilled in it to facilitate oil drainback into the oil pan.
Has anyone ever done this to a Stude block? Once that oil gets into those little valleys, it doesn't seem to ever leave. As hard a time as a Stude engine has to get oil back to the oil pan, this seems like it would help.

[PackardV8]

That nasty gray gooey stuff that takes forever to clean.

That is the no longer available ZDDP additive package so beloved by the old car community. Today's oils won't do that.

jack vines

[Mike Van Veghten]

Haven't looked to see what's on the other side of the location (most probably nothing !), while it might toss more oil on the cam (not really a bad thing for today...on the other hand, the engine designers of today do their best to keep stray oil off the cam and crankshaft.
As Jack said, keep your oil fresh...AND, DON'T just drive the car around the block and shut it down, get it up on the freeway and put some good fast lane speed miles on it.
That'll help burn (long heat cycles) off some of that garbage, rather than letting the byproducts collect.

Mike

[mbstude]

I think I remember Jim McCuan filling those valleys smooth on his Bonneville engine. He did an experiment to calculate just how much oil it took to fill them to reach the drain holes in the back.

Without doing some digging I don't know what he filled them with though.