I have a L98 that I just put on vortec heads and a ZZ4 cam W/ 1.6 RR. Anyway there seemed to be excessive valvetrain noise. So after taking the valve cover off it seems that the pushrod guideplates are forcing the rockers to move a little and push the pushrod next to the head where in goes through th small holes. No metal at all in the oil. I was told to use guideplates if you have over .500 lift. Well I would think that with self aligning rockers and how small the hole is in the head, not at all like the old chevy heads you may not need the plates. I would like to remove the guideplates if possible rather then modify them. Also even though the heads were machined, some of the rocker nuts pretty much bottomed out while adjusting the valves. So do I need to use the guideplates or what is recommend?

 

you need to stop talking to whoever told you to use guide plates with .500 lift. that has nothing to do with it. guideplates are a method of locating the push rod. what type of rockers do you have SA or nonSA? i'd guess SA if so you need to trash the guide plates.

 

You know what, the rockers were on there before I got the car. What is the physical difference between SA and regular rockers? I would think SA because I drove the car 12K with the stock motor and the rockers and everything seemed fine. Does the size of the hole in the head for the pushrod matter? Because the vortec heads I have are pretty small. So just SA rockers is the way to go?

 

try this and use rockers or rb83l69 or even my name