Okay, I've done the search thing, but everybody seems to have a much newer engine than mine....I just bought a set of stamped steel 1.6 roller-tip rockers for my car (350 from a 1983 suburban with an edelbrock performer cam and intake)...my question is: there is no other modifications I need to do other than just bolt these on for a bit more lift, correct? No other mods other than all the A.I.R. stuff removed, converted to vacuum advance, non-computerized H.E.I, and a non computer controled Rochester Quadrajet.....will I notice the difference with the 1.6's?

 

you will need new pushrods most likely and new TALL valve covers. those 1.6s will prolly nick the valve cover

 

You do not need new push rods, and they will not hit the valve cover. They actually increase the clearance between the push rod end of the rocker and the valve cover, because they are shorter on that side.

The only mod you may have to make is to enarge the push rod guide slots in the heads... sometimes they aren't long enough in the direction toward the rocker stud, and the push rod will hit the end of the slot and get forced up out of its seat in the rocker arm and rapidly destroy itself. There's no way to predict whether this will be a problem in any given motor; in my experience, about half of all motors need them lengthened, according top no particular pattern, sometimes even one head on a motor will have every single slot too short and the other head will be fine. Check them carefully.

You might notice a difference if you put some good rockers on there, just from making the ratio (and therefore the lift) consistent among all the valves; but as long as you use stamped ones, I doubt you'll be able to tell anything, especially with a terrible cam like that one, and no head work.

 

What would be a good cam? I don't plan on rebuilding until after Tax Time (extra money), and that includes some flat-top pistons and new cam and headwork.....what's your opinions?? Thanks

 

What kind of heads do you plan on using? What sort of goals & budget do you have in mind?

 

I plan to go with the Vortec style heads, and I'm on a tight budget, so those look good, along with a matching intake for them. I will also do a little porting, just to match the intake runners from the intake to the heads, and also plan to put some Heddman headers with 2 1/2 or 3" exhaust. That's about all I plan to do besides the cam upgrade....what do you think?