Well I pulled out a pressed in stud the other day. It took out the rocker, stud (obviously), and the pushrod put a notch in the head (i will post a pic later). My heads have the slot designed to hold the push rod from moving laterally. The rockers are non-self aligning. So now the push rod has no method of keeping aligned. I'm thinking its time for screw in studs and guideplates. Any thoughts, i'd rather not pull the heads if i can help it. I also don't want to put another $180 into my stock heads. Any ideas of what i should do?

BTW i'm running a ZZ4 cam and upgraded springs with stock rockers. I'm looking at these parts, tell me what you think.
Pushrods
I'm looking at the Comp guideplates but i don't know if i should get flat or raised.
And ARP screw in studs, but there are like 3 different ones listed for SBC on summit, which ones should i get, a part number would be great.

thanks guys
John

 

If you want guideplates, you're going to have to pull the heads to machine a flat surface on the stud bosses.

Vader talks about a shoulderless stud that can be used to replace press-in after tapping. You could use a self-aligning rocker on that one valve.

 

Yea, originally i was going to go with those screw in studs untl i saw the hole. You think that would be fine. It just kinda seems like a cheap solution. Don't get me wrong i don't want to spend a lot. Yea my machine shop quoted me $120 to pull the rest of the studs, all the machine work and installation of everything.

 

$120 to install screw-in studs & guideplates is a bargin. I assume that includes drilling out the pushrod holes.

Might as well do it right this time.

 

Thats pretty much what i thought too. I assume it includes drilling. However i never really did understand why you have to make the holes bigger when using guideplats. What do you think of my parts selection?

 

You only want one spot that's "guiding" the pushrod or rocker. Otherwise, you'll get binding.

The pushrods look fine. The studs should be the longer, for the guide plates, 3/8" type (not sure what they said about the 3 you were looking at).

 

i need the 3/8 inch diameter for stock rockers right? Also which length? 1.75 or 1.895 inch.

 

Screw the rocker nut back on the stud. not all the way.
Pound the stud back down so the top is level with the rest of them.
Drill and pin the stud boss. Drill out the one damaged pushrod slot. install 1 new '87up self guiding rocker arm with a new nut and a new pushrod.
Don't rev it so high.
You can do this with the head on the motor if you
remove the intake and put rags down in the lifter valley and the oil drain back holes in the ends of the head to stop any drill shavings from going down in the motor.
Wrap the valve springs with duct tape to keep the shavings out.
Vacuum up the shavings with a shop vac.

How much spring pressure are u using? How high did ya rev it?

 

I think i have decided to do screw in studs and guide plates so this never happens again, however i did consider your solution. I'll have to check the spring pressure, but it doesn't see > 5000rpm.