I have no idea why the Rocker Stud on my 190 cc AFR heads broke. I have good clearance on the all critical locations. My push rod is not bent. I don't think my retainer is smacking my valve guide. My XR82HR CompCam has .510 lift on intake (if I recall correctly) which does not seem to radical. No other damage just a busted Rocker Stud on my #5 intake valve. The heads must have under 5000 miles on them.

Could this just be a Rocker Stud or could I be missing something?

Has anyone had a Rocker Stud just break without any apparent reason?

BTW did AFR discontinue the 190cc head? I went to their site to research this and I found no listing for SBC 190cc street head...

Thanks

I had a rocker arm cut halfway through my stud and lay over sideways, f@#$ed up my valve stem tip, and bent a pushrod. I just don't know why or how it cut into it at the base of the rocker arm.

I had two of them just snap off. Never did figure out why, just replaced them all and didn't have another problem.
BTW they were Manley studs and they replaced them gratis

Yes, they are discontinued.

My friends afr195s had one snap off for no reason as well. Are you using polylocks? If so check to see how much thread is engaged into the lock. You may need to get longer studs. This may have been his problem but we arent sure.. Been fine since replacing them with ARP parts though. Think afr charges $11 for whatever brand they use(china?) And ARP's are closer to $50.

They are cheap. Broke 2 of them and replaced them with arp studs, no problems since.

Wow... I thought I was the only one. You would imagine that at the price for Air Flow Research Heads, all the parts would be great quality (rocker studs included).

Oh well, I quess I will look into getting ARP studs then... But I am still going to talk to the AFR guys and ask them WTF...

Thanks for the replies...

Weird, AFR's quality must be going downhill.

I'm still using the original AFR studs on mine and have never had any breakage problems.....and I've had my AFRs since 1997.

I did talk to the AFR guys and they claim that their rocker studs are comparable to ARP studs. He did not say they are ARP, he just said comparable.

He also said that once in a while a stud will tend to become brittle and brake due the hardening process. But its rare.

All I know is I'm going with ARP studs now...