Numba20

iTrader: (1)

Finally getting all the broke **** fixed and i can think about upgrade mods now! Lol Need some input from the LT1 guru's... 95 LT1 in sig.

In 95 the factory pus rods were hardened, I had one that was slightly bent so I found a spare from a 93 junk yard car and installed it for time being. (not hardened)

And I've been looking at 1.6 or 1.7 NSA RRA's. Which of corse will require a retune and I was thinking of raising the rev limit to around 6100. (at factory 5800 currently)

What kind of gain will I see from the combo? Will I sacrifice streetablility even more? I bought the car as a daily, so would they even be idea for my use? I'm no granny on the road, but the pedal rarely sees the floor. Maybe once a week or so I'll blast thru 2-3 gears to cure an itch or let some dumbass who pulled out in front of me know it wasn't appreciated.

I'd spend over 500 after retune and I just wanted to get the experts take on it. Thanks in advance!

96lt1m6

iTrader: (31)

Add new valve springs to the mix unless you already have upgraded springs.. YES, all of that will help and you will notice 1/4mile gains and then some...

lt1-xjs

You are leaving a lot on the table with the stock rockers. 1.6 nsa rockers, 7/16 studs, guide plates and chromoly pushrods along with raising the limiter to at least 6500 rpm would really wake the car up. I'm assuming you have a good exhaust system, headers etc.
btw, the '93 push rods came hardened from the factory.

Ed Wright

iTrader: (1)

I'm afraid you will be disappointed in the gains you see. I'm not sure how many of you guys have back-to-backed rocker swaps on the dyno, but I'm guessing not. I have, same dyno session. Swapped them with the car sitting on the dyno. Between stock rockers and Comp 1.6 roller rockers, 4 rwhp. Almost $100.00 per hp. That was my bone stock '95 Camaro test car.
My race car and modified street engines have had many rocker combos tested on them. Have never found ten flywheel hp there.
If buying everything for a new engine or a cam swap, sure that is what to buy. Expecting to find big performance increases from swapping rockers will lead to disappointment.
Btw, you should not need a re-tune over a rocker ratio change.

Hope this helps.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Ed did you test 100K mile worn out springs and then fresh springs and rockers together?

IMO there is power to be had in fresh springs by now.

I would believe that just rockers on already fresh springs would be a minor gain, but at the same time can be a step towards the cam setup most of us endup at.

Numba20

iTrader: (1)

Got pacesetter LT's with SLP loud mouth for exhaust. The springs are comp beehive 918's. I think that's in my sig...

But ED I was thinking just that. Only more along the lines of 20 HP or so. From what I've seen with the set up I have that right around what rolled rockers would do for me. Mainly be cause of added rpm I believe.

I'm pretty sure that 93's were unhardened. Everyrod in that yard cars motor had a ton of little dents in it. Except the one I pulled which only had a couple. But hardened rods don't dent like that.

93 LT1 Vette

I dyno'ed after a roller rocker change. I got 7hp and 6 foot pound of torque from 1.6's. I was not very impressed. I did gain 29hp from the cam, tune and valve springs later down the road. I see a lot of claims of high horsepower gains from different mods but in my case most were not as advertised. One thing I do need to point out is oil temp dropped by 5 or so degrees and my gas mileage went up by almost a mile per gallon. So there are other small Bennie's from the swap and tune.

LT11996

I have the pushrods from the '93 LT1 I bought from a T boned z28 and I'm pretty sure they're hardened..

lt1-xjs

I run chromoly pushrods. Every pushrod out of my '93 engine has a so called dent (dimple) on one end and they are hardened. File tested.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Only reason to worry about hardened is for guideplates.

Far as gains from rockers and springs IMO that depends mostly on how soon the stock springs allowed float.

Ed Wright

iTrader: (1)

None of my race stuff has 100,000 mile springs, and I have never seen over 10hp at the fly wheel from a minor rocker ratio change on an engine dyno. I have 1.8 intake rockers on mine right now, but no big gain over 1.7, but where I race most of us would slap our Momma for 5 hp. I have never seen 20 fly wheel hp from a rocker change. Hell, 1.6 to 1.8 was nowhere near 20. You name it, I have probably tested it.

BoostedDSM

iTrader: (6)

^ He knows his stuff, I'd trust what he says. Or spend money and find out the hard way I'm going to be doing this on my car too, but with the plans of H/C next spring anyhow.

Numba20

iTrader: (1)

The way I seen it, it just gave u a little more umph on top end. That would not be possible with factory rocker arms. Not the best upgrade for the street bang for buck by far, and I felt like $500 for NSA's and chromoly rods was just too steep for the improvement I'd notice. Ed confirmed, and that's all I was after. thanks again!

fex77k

iTrader: (2)

Swaping rockers to pick up horsepower is the wrong why to think about them. You are spending the money to reduce friction and increase the stability in the valvetrain. Assuming the ratios are close you don't make horsepower with an installation of non factory rockers, where you gain the power is with the reduction of friction and the ability to control the events. The added bonus of a correct installation is increased control at higher rpms.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

My point was that weak springs cost power. and that swapping springs and rockers together may sometimes result in meaningful power gains.

Then there is always the possibility that as with when folks do ignition mods the "gains" are miss-attributed. All of us know or have been the guy who thought a goofy plug or ignition box or whatever was a great thing when replacing worn components with fresh would have been just as good.

Purplels1

I agree......to stabilize the valve train!

Numba20

iTrader: (1)

Adds some reassurance that you won't blow the top. I get that. But with factory rev limiter, and my car rarely ever seeing past 4500 rpm, I think it is rather irrelevant for me.