AllCammedUp

Hey everyone, my Yella Terra's from Raging Motorsports showed up yesterday (thanks guys), and before I dive into the install, I've got a couple of questions for the guys that have already put these on...

1. the instructions say to put each piston at TDC, in firing order, and install the rocker pair in this order and to tighten the locknuts to 25 ft/lb.

The service manual states an entirely different procedure (I believe you do intake then exhaust and you flip/flop between heads) for the stock rockers and they only have you go to 22 ft/lb.

Which way did you guys do the install? I was just concerned that 25 would be too tight considering stock is 22. Will 25 create too much preload?

2. This sounds stupid, but the instructions make no mention of removing the spark plugs, but I'm assuming you do so you can turn the engine over... you guys did pull your plugs and reinstall afterwards, right?

3. Also, the instructions mention allowing enough time to let the lifters bleed down after you put the last one on... how long should I wait?

4. Are you guys dunking/coating the rockers in oil and then putting them on?

I appreciate any guidance; In reading the YT instructions versus the way I did the stock rockers (by the service manual procedure) I didn't know which way was 'right'.

TIA

Jason99T/A

iTrader: (21)

Whitney, I have yet to install a set of these, but I'll do my best to help you out.

25lb-ft will be fine. You will not be increasing lifter pre-load at all with the extra 3lb-ft. You can increase/decrease lifter preload by changing pushrod length or shimming the rockers. The 25lb-ft is just securing the rocker to the cylinder head.

You can do it exactly like the service manual says. All you are looking for is to have lifter for the valve you are doing to be on the base circle of the cam (valve completely shut).

It would help to remove the spark plugs to rotate the motor over. Since you have a Corvette, I don't know if you are going to have enough room to put a socket on the crank bolt to manually turn the motor over. You may have to do it with the starter. Make sure you pull the fuel pump and ignition fuses if you do it this way.

I would wait a good 15-30 minutes to be sure the lifters had bled down.

Before putting the valvecovers on, I would pour some motor oil on the rockers. Since you had the valvecovers off, it wouldn't be a bad idea to change your oil again too.

Good luck and I'll be having a set of these rockers on the way for this week too.

Jason

Chris99WS6PWTMET

Since they are shaft mounted per cylinder I did mine a little different. I turned the motor over until both pushrods were even, then installed that cylinders set. The reason I did this was because when I tried installing #2's set one cam lobe was up and the other down, when tightening the arms down it created a bind. I used no shims on mine so I just did them 1 cylinder at a time with the above method.

(I just tore the heads down for a swap and did notice quite a bit of rubbing though. Check post in External Engine.)

AllCammedUp

Jason, thanks for the reply. I'm not really sure how I can turn the motor over w/o using the starter, as I cannot get a wrench or a socket/ratchet on the bolt and have room to turn it... dang steering rack and the cooling fans make it next to impossible.

BTW, check out my sig... I finally got a chance to dyno the TEA 5.3 heads and your TR224 cam, and it made a GREAT showing with 420 rwhp/417 rwtq! I was pretty shocked to see the torque #'s match to closely to the hp #', but I'm not looking a gift-horse in the mouth! lOL!

Chris... I went over to the other forum and read your thread and it's got me concerned... do you have a picture of the 'rubbing'? You go on to say in the follow-up post to that thread that the rockers weren't damaged in any way... I'm a bit confused, though - did they chew out small hunks of the head or what? Are you still running the YT's, and if so, what did you do to remedy the problem?

Has anyone else seen this happen?

Jason99T/A

iTrader: (21)

Chris, I didn't realize they were shaft-mounted per cylinder. The way you described looks like it would work well!

Whitney, yes, I did see your numbers! I know you have to be very happy with the setup. Do you plan on dynoing after the rocker install?

jmX

Me and a friend installed a set yesterday. Its easy.

Find a cylinder with both valves totally shut...crank the engine over if you gotta until you can find 2 valves that are shut. On an F-body you can just turn the crank with a 24mm socket until you see the intake valve shut and the exhaust should stay shut...that'd be the compression stroke.

Put the lifters on and tighten both bolts down to zero lash (when you can't spin the pushrods with your fingers). Then turn each bolt 1/4 time until you can't turn them easily anymore. The valve springs shouldnt compress much. If you get more than 1 turn, put the included shims under the pedistals. If you get less than one turn, tighten them up to 22lb feet without the shims.

NOW, you have one cylinder done and you know if you need the shims or not. You dont need to turn the motor over at ALL anymore, just install the 7 other sets of rockers and torque them down (I use the factory spec) compressing the springs and all. Dont need to make sure the valves are shut, nor do you need to test for 0 lash and count turns...just install them and crank em down. That's it.

I'll have a writeup next week on my site for all this with photos. Its really easy, took us 45-60 minutes start to finish.

AllCammedUp

Yessir, I'm planning on doing so. With my work schedule and the way it is, I probalby won't have time to dyno immediately. I'll give them a few miles to settle in and get it on the rollers as soon as is feasible.

Yeah, I am really happy with the setup. I had several people at the corvetteforum cruise-in ask me about my setup after they witnessed the dyno pulls, so hopefully I sold a few more cams for you guys and a few more heads for TEA! LOL!

AllCammedUp

Hey Jon, thanks for chiming in on this. I'll keep an eye out for the write-up on your site.... I (and others) certainly do appreciate the time you take to do what you do with your site. It helps all of us DIY'ers out a lot.

So, you torqued them all down to 24lb/ft, right?

Have you noticed any rubbing as Chris mentioned above? Do you have a set on your C5?

Chris99WS6PWTMET

AllCammed - I dont have a digital camera but I'll try and get my buddy to come by tomorrow and snap some shots that I'll email to you.

As I said there is NO damage to the rocker arm, they basically just rubbed the head wall and cut a groove. This was not visible when arms were installed.

I like the quality of these rockers and will certainly continue to use them.

My remedy will be to grind my own reliefs on my GTP S2 heads that are being shipped to me right now from Thunder.

AllCammedUp

That's totally cool of you to do, Chris. Thanks a lot, man. I'm hoping that the rubbing won't happen on my install, but it definitely has me worried.... if they rub, then the shavings have to go somewhere... I'll actually have someone turn the motor over w/ the starter before I slap the valve covers back on to make sure mine don't rub... it sucks that if they rub and have to 'cut' their own living quarters that you'd cut a bit off of the engine life w/ the shavings just to gain the advantages of the rocker install.... hopefully this won't be the case w/ every install.

verbs

Chris, would you mind emailing me the pics as well? I'm installing them shortly as well and want to see where to put reliefs.

mverbin@aol.com

Thanks!

99ZEOD

iTrader: (5)

A good and easy way to turn the motor over without using the starter is to jack up the rear, put it in 6th and have two people spin the rears while someone watches the valvetrain. It's a little friendlier than using the starter.

jmX

Chris, I just want to make sure you realize that LS1 heads already have a little notch for rocker arms straight from the factory. Are you sure the notch you saw is from the yella terras? The ones I installed seemed to clear with at least 50 thousanths or so.

Here's a pic of what i'm talking about:

Bink

I was checking geometry and P/V clearance yesterday and mine appear to have about .050-.060" clearance.My .02.
joel (Bink)

Chris99WS6PWTMET

jmX - That is the spot where the marks are but since they are all different sizes/depths I figured there was no way they were factory reliefs. Let me get some pics today and I'll email them out for you to look at and post. I wish I'd have paid more attention when I installed the damn things.

Hopefully my S2 heads come in and I can compare those to my stockers. If others have different sized marks then maybe I am VERY mistaken!!

(If thats the case - I apologize for the false alarm.)

AllCammedUp

Don't worry about the false alarm, Chris. This is actually a good 'wake-up' call for those of us (like me) who didn't know about the reliefs. I'll look at mine when I yank my valve covers, as well. If its the case that the reliefs are already there (which I suspect they will be), then it may very well be a moot point and the YT's are just fine.... I would suspect that to be the case, especially since you indicated that there wasn't any wear on the rockers themselves after you noticed the reliefs.... they were probably there to begin with.

Regardless, sending out the pics would be much appreciated, as it'll give us something to compare to.

Chris99WS6PWTMET

Pics have been e-mailed.

False alarm. Sorry for stirring all this stuff up. My new S2 heads also have relief marks. The size/shape is still different on all of them. Must just be the way they get hit on the assembly line.

jmX

I have a non-proofread version of the yella terra install up here:
http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=21

It will not be up on the mainpage of the site for a few hours at least...probably tomorrow sometime after I get a few eyes on it and proof read it (I'm a bad speller!). But if you need them asap, they're there.

I'll make a new post about the writeup once I polish it (if it needs polish) tomorrow.

AllCammedUp

Thanks for sending out the pics, Chris - we appreciate it.

And a big thanks to you, JmX for putting the write-up on your site!