treeohfive

i heard you werent supposed to use self aligning rocker arms on 86 and below heads....i also heard you werent supposed to use them on L03 heads.....but dont the L03 heads COME with self aligning rockers? those two lil notches on the rockers arms look self aligning to me.

so truth or myth?

i had a problem with my rocker arms wanting to walk to one side of the valve on the 86 heads and they were wearing into the rocker arm stud.....i slightly filled down the valve stem to a flat as possible surface and stuck the L03 rocker arms on them and they work perfect now.....so why shouldnt i hae done this? why isnt it supposed to be OK??

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

Depends on what system was used. If the head has the large oval hole for the pushrod then either guide plates or SA rockers can be used. My LO3 had the narrow sloted pushrod holes to align the rockers as well as SA rockers. Not supposed to use them together but evedently the factory didnt care.

If your heads have the large oval pushrod holes then there is nothing to align the rockers. Thats probably why the SA rockers worked and the non-SA rockers wouldnt stay centered on the face of teh valve stem.

treeohfive

nah mine has the small slots, and they SHOULD have kept the arms from walking off the valve stem, but it didnt....in any event, this combo seems to work....so regardless if its supposed to be there or not...it works.....was just wondering what the diff was.

i mean what happens is you use the small slot heads with self aligning rocker arms? it doesnt seem like itd make a difference seeing how the pushrod is supposed to be dead center on the stem....the self aligning would just insure that....doesnt seem like itd cause harm anywhere....the only thing i can MAYBE see is the push rod wearing on the small slot ...but that shouldnt be a problem if you have 2 things aligning the rocker arms.

--shrugs-- maybe someone can correct me? i dunno....just doesnt make sense to me how it could hurt anything.

Stekman

Only one method of pushrod centering should be used at any one time. Whether that be guideplates, self aligning rockers, or the narrow slots.

There should be no reason for the rocker arm to walk to the side. Have you inspected the valve train geometry and what not? Looked at the pushrods to make sure they aren't bent slightly?

If they are factory pushrods, or anything resembling factory pushrods (i.e. not hardened), the guide slots will wear into the pushrod before the pushrod even thinks about wearing into the head.

treeohfive

brand new hardened push rods....

valve stems were perfectly flat, there IS no reason they should walk, but they did...

in any event, i still dont see why it would matter.....if the self aligning rocker arm centers the rocker arm dead center on the valve stem, the push rods shouldnt even be riding on the edges of the slots....thats where i dont see why it could hurt anything.... it seems like itd stabalize the horizontal movement in the triangulation of the valvetrain.

must be a communication error somewhere around here.....im just not seeing it...my pushrods dont rub or wear on the head slots .....next time i pull my intake off ill just bore the narrow slots out some just to be on the safe side....i trust self aligning rocker arms much more, so id rather go with that.

Stekman

Obviously there is a reason, otherwise they wouldn't have. Check clearances, make sure the rocker stud isn't bent. Everything. The valve tip is one of the last things i would suspect.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

The problem comes in that things may be off ever so slightly and each system may want to align the rocker slightly different. Basically the valve train can bind up if you have more then one system in place. On my 305 the some of the pushrods have clean spots where the sludge hasnt been able to accumulate, most likely due to the fact that the pushrods are forced to one side of the slot by the SA rockers.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

I also say that there is a reason that the rockers werent staying centered. There is obviously a problem if that was happening. You should go back and make sure there arnt any bent pushrods or any other problems.

treeohfive

all pushrods were 100% straight, checked them with a straight edge.....rocker arm studs are not bent......checked them with a straight edge as well, and i doubt the stud can somehow **** to the side within the head itself....

jmd

iTrader: (4)

I just did valve guide seals on my 88 non-roller cam LG4 (zillions of miles, but I really doubt it's modified inside) and I found the same thing. The pushrods look no different than those from any guided head engine but the rockers are guided.

The tips of the valves seem worn around the edges, but not worn much dead centre.

Weird to me, since it conflicts what I'd learned previously, but it does work fine after 190k+ miles.

Maybe they were phasing out non-guided rockers and figured if they could use guided rockers across the board to save $, they'd do it and did.

-Matthew