Left cup was shinny and was oily on its side looked pretty normal.
Right cup had no oil and almost had like a grinding surface to it as if done aggressively by the pushrod. Also notice how the hole is alot smaller compared to the left cup




So I was inspecting my spare rockers arms to see what kind of wear to expect on the cup and tip of the rockers. I'm going to be installing the BTR trunnion upgrade soon and was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as to which rocker arm wear is normal

 

If you're doing a trunnion upgrade, do the bronze bushing one, NOT the needle bearing version. Not sure what BTR is selling these days, but he WAS selling the needle bearing kits.

 

I'd ditch those and run toller rockers

 

The wear on the right in NOT normal. I found the same thing in my LQ4 on tear down. One rocker had what looked like casting grit stuck in the pushrod pocket which had left a dull finish on both the rocker and pushrod, as if it had been ground down by a coarse stone. The pushrod was visibly shorter than the others. You should discard that rocker and it's pushrod.

 

^^Agreed. That rocker and pushrod need to be replaced.

 

Is it just me, or does the race on teh right look a little chewed as well? I wonder if that particular rocker is having an oiling issue.

 

I've seen this on two motors now, one LQ4 and one LM7, it certainly seems lack of oil related. The pattern I had was straight, where the rod stopped spinning in the cup. Yeah, keep the shiny. The 4 had a spun main also, it makes sense it would have other damage. the 7 had a bit of gunk in the pan and lots of carbon packed in the rings. Apparently not every one loves their "LS" engines.

 

For sure not getting oil to the top of the engine. My uncle's 5.3 was like that when i tore it down. Lifters tapping. ...all sludged up.....thanks mobil 1.

 

I would not say this is an oiling issue. I'd say it's completely normal for a high mileage engine.

We pulled my sons 4.8 at 279K miles to replace it with a 5.3. Upon tear down on his old engine we found that all 16 rocker arm push rod pockets were worn just like the ones in the picture above. When we pulled his motor it would still hold 60 lbs at idle cold, and about 40 PSI when running down the road hot. We only pulled it because it was smoking a little bit on cold start up due to leaking valve guide seals.

I found the exact same thing when I bought a used 6.0L engine to rebuild as a core. I ended up buying 16 new rocker arms from Summit racing, and installed the Straub bushing kit.

I also found the same thing on about half of the rockers on the 5.3L engine we bought as a running core for my sons truck build.

So, I have yet to tear down a used LS engine and NOT find several of the rockers with that type of wear, if not all of them. Yes, it means NEW rocker arms, and NEW push rods. Good luck with your project. Imagine what they will look like after running for several years with high lift cams, and double springs, or stronger single springs. My guess is when the valve train is upgraded the rockers will not last the 200K+ miles that they did on stock valve springs, with stock cams. Just something else to keep an eye on. I'm sure lack of frequent oil changes played a big part in all of this though. Who's to say how long they would last if the oil was changed on time, every time, throughout the life of the engine, or if synthetic oils would allow them to live a little longer. They are cheap, so just buy new ones and have the piece of mind.

 

I have about 50 used ls rocker arms. They all have 80k miles + from all diferent types of cathedral heads. Ill grab a pic of them this evening for you.