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I have ls3 rockers with the comp cams bearing upgrades and recently took my car to get dyno tuned. The car is ls2 bottom end with ls3 top end and a blower cam. It dynoed only 240 horse so they figured something was wrong. They determined that I have some stuck non moving rocker arms. They also said that the bolts where stuck and a couple broke when removing. This is a completely new engine and know I torqued all the bolts to spec and I didn't use any kind of loc tight. The tuner told me to get factory rockers and the upgraded ones are junk. Has anyone ever heard of this or had similar problems. I spent a lot of money for new rockers plus the upgraded bearings just not use them and buy another set. Thanks
The rockers with the better trunnion bearings are not junk. They are better than stock, if the bearing kit is installed correctly. First thing to do is find a different tuner, then figure out what is wrong with the engine.
Ive been told by quite a few pretty reputable LS builders that the trunion upgrades are garbage. Also the issue with LS rocker arms are on pre 2000 designs. After 2000 they used a different trunion design and solved 90% of the issues. I would just replace your rockers with stock LS3 rockers off a gen 5 camaro and be done with it. Also I am not trying to insult your intelligence or anything, but when you torqued the rockers down did you ensure that the lifters were on the base circle of the camshaft at the time of torquing? Again, not trying to insult anyone, just sometimes small things get overlooked.
If the rockers were seized and the bolts were damaged, you've got other problems. I would guess that either the trunions were installed poorly or you have issues with your valvetrain.
If one is not careful with the press or vice, the bearing journals can be knocked out of alignment by deforming the rocker with excessive force or forces applied improperly to the rocker. Once the rocker is deformed, the bearings will bind. In a short period of time, they can eat themselves up.
What happened is the bearings some how worked there way out and where so tight against the retaining clips that they froze. I am pretty sure I checked each one before install to make sure they where even on both ends before I put the clips on. I had ARP bolts and there special thread compound so not sure why the where stuck. I have factory ls3 rockers and bolts now so hope they will be alright. It's sucks trying to use the best you can and then having to downgrade.
If the rocker bores are out of alignment or deformed, or the bearing shells are not installed square, it can cause the needle bearings to try to "track". This will have the effect of the trunion trying to unscrew itself out of the bore. That is very likely what you are experiencing. Get some new rocker arms and a new trunion upgrade kit and use the proper arbor press and installation tool to put them in. Or, order some that are already done like Tooley sells.
I used a press and am pretty sure they where square. I have a set of factory rockers I am going to use hopefully the needle bearings will be alright. The tuner working on the car said I didn't need the upgrades. There was three stuck but the rest looked perfect. I hope nothing else was damaged such as the lifters.
I guess the rockers have been addressed here to some point so just want to lay e thought about push rod length if too long and overlooked they could mess up the bolts and cost a lot of power loss by binding.
They where supposed to be factory length right? ? I measured and thought factory length was correct. I have Ls2 bottom end with ls3 heads and ls7 lifters. I used ls9 head gaskets.
Last edited by TommyTime; 07-14-2015 at 11:13 PM.
Reason: typo
07-09-2015, 04:38 PM
Ls3 rockers stuck? 
