Just a few more parts to go, and I have a question. Roller tip rocker arms, or standard stamped steel rockers. Whats the advantage of the rollers over the standard stamped steel? I know there would be some friction reduction, but besides that I cant see a big difference. I can see how a roller tip if not properly machined could cause a big problem however, especially in a cast body roller rocker. Just a small variation in the drill fixture to the stamping would throw the the roller tip either higher or lower, making the load,and lift on the valve either higher or lower. That could be the diference in breaking something or not getting the lift you would expect. In a standard stamped steel rocker, the die produces an exact copy of the part time after time with little to know repatability error.

Has anyone had any of these issues? Does anyone see a problem using a standard stamped steel rocker with a comp cams xe268? 477/480 lift, 224/230 duration @.050? The springs, valves,retainers are all new but stock.

 

Not with EOM parts. Factory rockers can have a wide variation in tolerances. They're not a performance component and the wide tolerance is acceptable for normal street use. Some classes such as Stock Eliminator mandate that stamped steel rockers must be used if factory equipped. These racers will buy quality aftermarket replacement rockers to make sure the rocker ratio is exactly the same on every rocker. If they're allowed to upgrade to a roller tip then they will. If you have to run stamped steel rockers but are allowed a high lift camshaft, you can buy what's called long slot rockers. These have a longer pivot slot so that the rocker doesn't contact the rocker stud boss when the valve is fully opened.

All rocker tips move across the tip of the valve through the full travel of the rocker. It's not a small movement but it's still movement. A roller tip rocker reduces the side load placed on the valve stem and guide by allowing the tip of the rocker to roll over the valve tip instead of sliding. For the average street car, you'll see very little if any performance gains as there's still the frictional loss of the rocker pivot ball.

Going to a full roller rocker will see a small gain in performance over stamped steel rockers just because of the reduced friction plus the fact that all the rockers will have the exact same rocker ratio.

With a SBC, going from a full roller 1.5 rocker to a full roller 1.6 rocker, you'll only gain about 5hp.