Terminator Heads WARNING...
Terminator Heads WARNING... Just giving a heads up to those running these heads that you may want to check your rocker arms if your using your stock rocker bolts. It seems that the stock bolts are a little to long causing them to shank out a little bit. I only have a few hundred miles on my top end cause Im waiting on time to get tuned but the other day I went and started my car after it had sat for a week and noticed it had a slight miss, once it was fully warmed up (Im paranoid about that) I took it for a quick drive and could here a pretty loud tap that sort of sounded like a exhaust leak from in the car so when I got home I popped the hood and could tell it was valve train for sure. So I took off the valve covers and found all four rockers for the exhaust valves slightly to the right with one ALL the way on the retainer chewing the retainer up...same thing on the driver side. At first I was puzzled how this could happen then from talking to a friend he mentioned that maybe I needed longer pushrods....so I got with TSP and they were like Oh yeah....Edelbrock didn't tell us untill recently that the rocker arm bolt hole isn't as deep as stock heads. G thanks for telling me, not sure how long they knew but they did know and that is info that all people using those heads should have been notified. There sending me new bolts so thats good. Only thing is now Im worried about changing my oil for fear of shavings in it. I just changed it 50 miles ago.
Anyway, just thought I would put a warning out. I'm just glad it's an easy fix cause I do like the heads. I'd hate to read about someone messing up there new heads.
Anyway, just thought I would put a warning out. I'm just glad it's an easy fix cause I do like the heads. I'd hate to read about someone messing up there new heads.
I asked about the pushrods and they said no...7.4 (what Im using) are correct. They should stick up a little so they can self adjust but the bolt must be in correctly and torqed properely (22ft lb) When putting them on you cant tell that they are too loose, I assume its after you put some miles on them and they get heated it allows the play in the rockers.
I think he means that the bolt holes for the rocker arms weren't deep enough. If the hole isn't deep enough, the bolt will bottom out, and won't hold the rocker arm down. It'll be torqued down to 22 ft-lbs alright, but there won't be much force acting on the actual rocker arm.
All you have to do is cut the bottom of the bolt off where there is no threads, no biggie.... I got the third set of those heads of the production line(or so I was told) some time ago and noticed that right of the bat. Also you might want to look at the bolts directlly above the intake runner as part of the bolt stick into there. I ended up cutting all my factory bolts down so that one won't bottom out and the other won't interupt airflow. You also might want to use some thread sealant on those bolts above the intake runners.
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Originally Posted by 99WS7
Just giving a heads up to those running these heads that you may want to check your rocker arms if your using your stock rocker bolts. It seems that the stock bolts are a little to long causing them to shank out a little bit. I only have a few hundred miles on my top end cause Im waiting on time to get tuned but the other day I went and started my car after it had sat for a week and noticed it had a slight miss, once it was fully warmed up (Im paranoid about that) I took it for a quick drive and could here a pretty loud tap that sort of sounded like a exhaust leak from in the car so when I got home I popped the hood and could tell it was valve train for sure. So I took off the valve covers and found all four rockers for the exhaust valves slightly to the right with one ALL the way on the retainer chewing the retainer up...same thing on the driver side. At first I was puzzled how this could happen then from talking to a friend he mentioned that maybe I needed longer pushrods....so I got with TSP and they were like Oh yeah....Edelbrock didn't tell us untill recently that the rocker arm bolt hole isn't as deep as stock heads. G thanks for telling me, not sure how long they knew but they did know and that is info that all people using those heads should have been notified. There sending me new bolts so thats good. Only thing is now Im worried about changing my oil for fear of shavings in it. I just changed it 50 miles ago.
Anyway, just thought I would put a warning out. I'm just glad it's an easy fix cause I do like the heads. I'd hate to read about someone messing up there new heads.
Anyway, just thought I would put a warning out. I'm just glad it's an easy fix cause I do like the heads. I'd hate to read about someone messing up there new heads.
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Originally Posted by jeffstar
And he was just giving you the correct information as your information is misleading..."dude"
Everybody keep their panties on!!!!
oh and happy valentines day!
Everybody keep their panties on!!!!
oh and happy valentines day!
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,094
Likes: 0
From: Northern Va
Originally Posted by jeffstar
...oh and happy valentines day!
Just joking 'Dude'.
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 3,043
Likes: 0
From: Texas and Qatar
Some extra info tips from my installs:
Its not Terminator heads only, its ALL Edelbrock. Its extremely obvious (unless your blind) when installing whether the rocker bolts are too long, the rocker will not center over the valve tip and will be somewhat loose. Its mainly the exhaust rocker bolts as the intake bolts protrude into the intake runner like any other head so length doesn't matter on intake bolts. On the installs I've done, I end up just replacing the bolts with shorter allen headed metric bolts from a hardware store for about $10 or so. The coolant pipe bolts need to be shortened also, or you can do what I do and add a hardened washer under the bolt head.
FWIW Edelbrock sells a rocker bolt kit for those using stock rockers, I'll look for the part number since it pertains to all Edel. LS1 castings as well. I believe Edel. may have intended for the end user to have aftermarket rocker arms when originally designing the heads, not realizing most of us love the stock rocker arms.
Its not Terminator heads only, its ALL Edelbrock. Its extremely obvious (unless your blind) when installing whether the rocker bolts are too long, the rocker will not center over the valve tip and will be somewhat loose. Its mainly the exhaust rocker bolts as the intake bolts protrude into the intake runner like any other head so length doesn't matter on intake bolts. On the installs I've done, I end up just replacing the bolts with shorter allen headed metric bolts from a hardware store for about $10 or so. The coolant pipe bolts need to be shortened also, or you can do what I do and add a hardened washer under the bolt head.
FWIW Edelbrock sells a rocker bolt kit for those using stock rockers, I'll look for the part number since it pertains to all Edel. LS1 castings as well. I believe Edel. may have intended for the end user to have aftermarket rocker arms when originally designing the heads, not realizing most of us love the stock rocker arms.
Well mine was not obvious and they were tight and nothing to cause an alram when they were installed. Putting miles on them and heat is what really loosened them up.
huh...funny you mention the coolant plug deal, we had an issue with my right rear block off. Guess I'll throw a harden washer on there to be safe. It had a little leak after I put a few miles on it. We tighten it down a little more it had in it and I havent had a leak since.
Thanks for the info Joseph
huh...funny you mention the coolant plug deal, we had an issue with my right rear block off. Guess I'll throw a harden washer on there to be safe. It had a little leak after I put a few miles on it. We tighten it down a little more it had in it and I havent had a leak since.
Thanks for the info Joseph
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 286
Likes: 0
From: Abilene, Tx
Well this is all very usefull information if we ever do another Edelbrock head install again. Oh and my wife and I were the ones to install these heads, and no it was not obvious when installing the rocker arms that the bolts were too long. When the bolts were tightened down the rockers centered on the valve stems and did not move once torqued.
Originally Posted by -Joseph-
Some extra info tips from my installs:
The coolant pipe bolts need to be shortened also, or you can do what I do and add a hardened washer under the bolt head.
The coolant pipe bolts need to be shortened also, or you can do what I do and add a hardened washer under the bolt head.
Last edited by 99blancoSS; Feb 15, 2007 at 11:53 AM.