RB04Av

Meanwhile, that's not OP's issue. He needs to check his timing set. His motor didn't eat itself because of his rocker bolt torque. Talking about it is just a diversion; a shiny thing laying in the weeds somewhere off the path, just waiting for the easily distracted to come wandering by and lose focus by arguing about it.

01CamaroSSTx

iTrader: (3)

Well to add to his point it really makes no difference if you're on the base circle or not when you torque the rocker arm bolts down. I've always torqued the rockers on the base circle with the EOIC method but once all are torqued it will not matter if you are on the base or the side of the lobe, etc., the 22 ft lbs will still read on the torque wrench. I know this because I've actually verified it. Even on the base circle your compressing that spring due to the built in preload on the pushrod and the use of a fixed non-adjustable rocker arm.

JorgeG79

I think what might have caused my rocker arm bolt to break apart and shoot out of my engine is that I do remember my torque wrench just spinning on that rocker arm bolt and it never clicked. I wonder if it was possibly over-tightened or the bolt didn't make it all the way into the threads but threaded just enough to hold together until I went to turn the engine and then it snapped. I think my other problem where my engine would not turn over after I extracted the broken rocker arm bolt would it be possible my pistons were starting to rust up after it sitting a couple of days with the valve cover off and that's why I had to use a cheater bar to turn the engine over?

wannafbody

iTrader: (2)

I was under the impression that you don't need to rotate the cam in order to tighten the rockers down on a LS engine. Just torque down to 22 ft pounds for stock rockers.

gametech

iTrader: (1)

The big concern is that on lobes where the valve should be open, especially on larger cams, you are putting a lot of pressure on aluminum threads in the head before the bolt has been ran in far enough to engage all of them. Far easier to rotate an engine than fix pulled threads in the head.

Old Buzzard

"why I had to use a cheater bar to turn the engine over?"
Because you had the spark plugs in and were trying to use a 12" ratchet??

pdxmotorhead

Never saw it mentioned, but does the OP even know whats been done to the motor in the past?
We don't know if the heads are shaved, if the cam is a regrind or new billet, whats the working
diameter of the new cam vs old cam. Maybe the block and heads have been cut its got a thin head gasket,
Are the rockers factory GM, or are they bumped a point in ratio?
Did he degree the cam on #1 to make sure it was machined correctly?
(I've had more than one cam improperly drilled for the sprocket bolts. )
What length are the valves?
If headwork was done in the past, it's possible they machined the valve spring
pockets to set the valve spring pressure correctly, which means longer pushrods.

So many minor variables in this question ..

Oh and OP,,, Read the manual. Plenty of LS manuals out there that will give the step by step
instructions on what your doing, your obviously learning, you need to follow a manual,
and quit thinking.

Alsovto be safe pretend there is NO SUCH THING as a cam kit with lifters pushrods and rockers than can be installed without measuring.
I've had to buy custom chain and sprockets because stock engines blocks had the cam bore massively out of position.

Good luck