Hi, I have a set of aluminum bowtie heads and the problem is the rocker arms keep coming off .We had them adjusted properly but just ideling their fine but when you rev it up alittle it throws a couple of them off and bending push rods, the nuts are tight and put nuts on top of the main nuts so they couldnt move .the rockers are steal self aligning rockers. Anybody ever have this problem or know a solution Thanks

 

Don't know the bowtie heads real well. Are they set up for self-aligning, or does the slot in the head guide the pushrod?

What is your process of adjusting valve lash?

 

it's not set up for guide plates it has the self aligning rockers some people say dont need guide plates not sure and the way we adjusted the valves was took hot wire off the distributer and i bumped the motor over till they were all snug them started it and backed each one off till started clicking then tightened about half turn i am totally lost here never messed with aluminum heads either

 

There are 3 ways to align the pushrod to the valve tip. Self aligning, guide plates, or the guide slot in the head. Only one is needed/should be used.

What's the casting number of the heads?

 

so i need to adjust them with engine off and one cylinder at a time and thank you for your time and help

 

The casting numbers are 14011049 then another number is 112877 i guess thats right

 

It's my preffered method. Doing it a second, alternative method better eliminates the possibility that it's an error in lash adjustment.

 

I'll try that and i really appreciate your help with this

 

try new rocker nuts or

take a bfh to the tops of the nuts and bugger the threads

 

We readjusted the rockers and changed the push rods cause the ones they had in motor we for a stock set of heads so I bought some crane hardened pushrods in and it did fine for about 15 minutes then reved it up again and broke the rocker arm which is stamped steel it broke it where the pushrod pushes it up I was told i need different rockers I think maybe cromeollie or something like that cause the valve spring are to strong the heads have been ported and polished i think the compression ratio is something like 10-1-5 something like that not sure why they used regular rods and rockers with that setup so does this sound like the way i need to go next with the super strong rockers not really sure what exactly i need .... thanks for any help

 

Sounds to me like the heads are trying to align the pushrod via the guide slot in the cylinder head and you're trying to align the pushrod via self-aligning rocker arms. That's a no-no. The cylinder head (in the ones designed for non-SA rockers) has the slot where the pushrod slides through narrow enough that it keeps the pushrod centered on the lifter. Self aligning rockers keep the pushrod in location by using a notched out recess on the rocker tip to center the rocker arm to the valve tip, preventing walking of the rocker arm. This also centers the pushrod to the lifter. However, it's center might not equal the center that the guide slot creates. Thus they conflict. In your case, at the higher RPMs/valvetrain loads, the rocker arm holds the pushrod tip over center "A". The lifter might be under center "A", might not be, either way, the guide boss says it's center is "B", slighty askew, creating your bend in the pushrod, throwing the rocker arm, etc. Change out for non-SA rockers and see what happens.

Be careful, though, in all this snapping of valve train components, damage to the valve train can ensue. Also metal shavings could possibly find there way into the oil system. Bad juju there.

 

Just a thought....did you measure for the correct length pushrods?