Stock Rocker Arms Fall Apart
01-10-2007, 06:45 PM
#1
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Stock Rocker Arms Fall Apart I just got done rebuilding my motor and started it up and heard a ticking noise. I killed the motor and pulled one of the valve covers and the stock rocker arms fell apart and all the bearings spilled everywhere. I have a MS4 cam, stock lifters, chromoly pushrods, stock rockers, and Patriot Gold Series valvesprings that are good to 0.660" lift. When I bolted on the rockers, I just tightened them down fairly snug. Could this have pinched my bearings and tore apart the rocker arms or did they just have too much spring pressure load?
01-10-2007, 06:58 PM
#2
No, this has happened to quite a few people. It was a bad batch of rockers from GM. You never know which one if any are going to fail. The best thing to do is to send them to Harland Sharp and for 300 they will modify the bearing retainers and you will never have to worry about that again.
01-10-2007, 08:14 PM
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Originally Posted by 03 BUSA
No, this has happened to quite a few people. It was a bad batch of rockers from GM.
01-10-2007, 08:33 PM
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I've spilled bearings out of two of my rockers. Get the rebuild done if you can. I will eventually. For now though, I just went to GM and bought a rocker. This happened to me on two separate occasions, several thousand miles apart.
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01-11-2007, 10:17 AM
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happened to me last summer, didnt even know it happened till i changed my oil and found a bearing attached to the plug. pulled apart the whole engine, and there were none to be found. i would have had them rebuilt if i were you. I think when i did mine it was 250 from harand sharp. I believe you can also send them to Nasty Perf. too.
01-11-2007, 01:23 PM
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I think it's just a luck of the draw type thing with the stock rockers. I've had the MS4 in my car for about 3000 miles with no problems from the stock rockers. But I plan to send them to Nasty Perf. as soon as I get my LT1 car back on the road. I would reccomend it to anybody doing a cam sawp just for the piece of mind.
01-12-2007, 03:48 PM
#14
I think its a hit/miss sort of thing. My friend Pat broke a rocker arm and he has just a tiny cam and bolt ons in his 2000 SS. But my friend Ed has a 383, cam, Procharger D1 blower AND 125 shot of nitrous, and he is running stock rockers in his 99 with no problems at all.
01-12-2007, 04:22 PM
#15
to date i have not exp. 1 rocker arm failure
i have built quite a few lsx engines,
but i blueprint everything, cam degreed, pushrod length, rocker geometry
the works. valve spring open/close pressure, etc.
have even reused hi mlieage stock rockers
i have built quite a few lsx engines,
but i blueprint everything, cam degreed, pushrod length, rocker geometry
the works. valve spring open/close pressure, etc.
have even reused hi mlieage stock rockers
02-10-2007, 07:20 PM
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I think mine fell apart because I overtightened the rocker arms bolts. I didn't torque them down, I just got them really tight. This might have caused the bearings to pinch causing too much friction. Did anyone else who's rocker arms fall apart torque them down?
02-10-2007, 08:20 PM
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My 98 killed two rockers at the same time(Very odd). Anyhow they were changed out by a sponsor. This was two years ago, fast forward to this past fall. I installed a Heads and Cam package. When i removed the heads, sure enough one of the cups had about Five, yes five bearings in it. Those fraken things go EVERYWHERE! I've got about 1K on my new setup (LSK lobes) and nothing yet, and i hope it stays that way. 
02-10-2007, 08:31 PM
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I have a ticking noise that I've been hearinf in my car lately. Does in get louder as time goes on or get louder with rpms? What does a bad lifter sound like? I'm going to pull the valve covers off and check the rocker arms tonight.
Would it make your car run worse if you have a bad rocker arm?
Would it make your car run worse if you have a bad rocker arm?
02-10-2007, 08:46 PM
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Originally Posted by bostonhatcher
I think mine fell apart because I overtightened the rocker arms bolts. I didn't torque them down, I just got them really tight. This might have caused the bearings to pinch causing too much friction. Did anyone else who's rocker arms fall apart torque them down?
