383backinblack

I've lusted after these things for a long time, and after I had TWO comp pro mag rockers chip their nose rollers last summer, it was time (In their defense they were like 20yrs old).

This steps up my rocker ratio to 1.6, gains a TON of room inside the valve covers, and bumps up my lift .674/.674 (was .640).

The setup is a BITCH, getting the cradles shimmed to the right height and then getting the pushrods right (I needed different sizes between pass/driv sides). Once that's done though, lashing these things is the ****.

Before and after. I can't wait to run this thing now ... and it's finally setup to run the kind of RPM (7000+) it was built for. Now to get enough air to make that worthwhile ...

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

What? Why would it need different pushrods from driver bank to pass bank? Is one head machined more than the other or the deck heights off? I have never heard of that before


But i love shaft rockers. Expensive but i'd never want to run a stud rocker again

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

Didn't you have to cut the head studs (I think I see studs) and slightly clearance the tops of the nuts ?

I am running a similar setup on a set of dart pro 1 227cc heads and had to clearance even with thin washers

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

383backinblack

Yeah it was expensive, but it wouldn't have been much cheaper to replace everything with stud mount parts of better quality anyway.

I had to pull the Pass head to fix the valve tips where the rocker nose broke. They BARELY kissed the deck, but that appears to have been enough to require a shorter push rod on that side. I measured every single push rod location several times, and that's what it took to get them all in range. 7.900 on the Pass side, 7.950 on the Driver's side (they did NOT take .050 off the head).

The SMALL window of adjustment on shaft rockers compared to the stud rockers wasn't something I was prepared for! It's possible they were already off, but with stud rockers you'd probably never notice unless you went in and measured them all, as there's enough takeup for it to still work and have decent geometry.

383backinblack

Man, what a pain. Yeah, the kit actually came with flat, torx-head head bolts to replace that row of studs. The studs substantially interfere with the cradles. Perhaps my heads were different, but there's no way you could've clearanced the studs enough to work (I have AFRs).

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

With the shafts i found it easy to do, i used LGM on my sbc. Single base shaft and the rockers bolted to it. Stand was clearance for headstuds. All i had to do was put the lifter/cam at half lift, and the valve at half lift, fill the distance with pushrod and add in hyd preload and that was my length.....but main thing was get the shaft stand height so that rocker was 90 deg to the valve stem at this mid lift point

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

I had to cut off all the protruding threads and threaded the stud (now without hex key) in with the nut half engaged and a bolt in the top half so I didn't have to remove the heads and still had to slightly grind on the 12 point nuts on the intake side to get the rocker stands to clear. No way this would have worked eith 6 point nuts

383backinblack

The stands do have clearance, but it's not enough. I know the Jesel kits are built out for specific heads, so the AFRs may have a weird spot there that's jut too high, so they swap in those bolts. Not having a stud definitely made me sad lol.

It's a solid roller, also.

AlkyIROC

I have T&D shaft rockers on my BBC engine. Nothing wrong with Jesel. They both do the same thing.

T&D has awesome customer service. The used kit I bought had standard height stands. Because of my longer intake valves, I needed taller stands for the intakes. There wasn't enough room/adjustment to shim them up. T&D exchanged the stands for the cost of shipping.

Shaft rockers are much better that stud mount. They position the rocker tip directly over the valve. It improved my geometry so much that I had to modify a few pushrod holes through the head so that the pushrods had clearance.

skinny z

A fundamental point in setting valve train geometry yet one which is overlooked by just about everyone trying to learn. Shaft system or stud mount, that parameter still applies.

Certainly, if my shift targets were 7000 RPM (like the OP's are), the shaft rocker system would be on my wish list. As it is, 6500 is probably pushing the limit of my pile of current parts.

383backinblack

To be fair, the parts that were in there were CLOSE to the best for stud mount stuff. And they lived for a LONG *** time with severe beatings. Those rockers were close to 20yrs old, and had a good amount of street driving on them, and hundreds of passes down the track.

I built the motor to spin that high, and set everything up to peak at 7500rpm. But when we dynoed it back in the day, it peaked and table-topped at 6500rpm. Most likely because the Victor Jr. intake just can't support that much RPM. But we figured, hey, if you're built to rev to 8000, and you can make 1,000 hp at 6500, you're probably going to live a long healthy life. Which has been the case mostly!

I DO want to get up to those revs someday, but I have to find a way to fit a super victor (or other intake) under the hood. As it is now, I've got a 4.5" cowl and it barely fits the carb hat under it.

Also, if you're looking for a good diagram and explanation of setting up the rocker geometry the Jesel one is great.

383backinblack

Agreed. Jesel had a standard setup for the AFR heads, that's why I went with them.

The price of the rockers was only part of the story anyway, as I found during the project that the noses of my lifters had started to spread. I had to really pry a few of them out of their bores. So I stepped up from the Comp endurex lifters to the sportsman pieces. Also some coin. But, the next step up from there was some pro level Crower or Jesel parts that were twice the money. I do have some stout springs on it though, for a street-ish car (~600lbs).

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

That's why I run crowers with big wheels and ford size bores

383backinblack

Next time the motor is apart. Haha ... god forbid. But, at that point I'd probably say **** it and go LSX

AlkyIROC

Crower HIPO lifters in my engine and I also use Comp Cams pushrods with 0.135" walls. With over 0.800" lift and triple springs, I need as much valve train stabilization as possible.

383backinblack

Nice ... I've got .105 wall comp push rods. Because, small block.