Just curious, is anyone else running these rocker and have they had any problems with them? I have them on my 312" and have not had any of the problems that Charlie has had.

"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

Well i had them on my 312 when they 1st came out years back and was chewing up adjuster balls on some, i dont know if it was the p/rod cups or soft adjusters, Ted revised the oiling by grinding diagonal oiling grooves on the shafts, some of the users had no problems so not sure where to aim the gun. I,m am reluctant to run them on new engine but am thinking on it a bit more.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Sometime ago I mentioned a problem like Charlie's to a friend.  He said it may be an issue of harmonics.  Hard to identify, but still destructive.  One problem he had was with his light plane exhaust breaking twice, the second time even after being factory reinforced.  I think the culprit had something to do the the propeller.   Another problem he had with a BBC which kept breaking one (or maybe more) rocker studs.  Dont remember what he said other than it being harmonics related.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

Charlie.  I’ve run the Dove roller rockers well over thirty years now in a variety of applications and that’s the first one I’ve seen snapped off at the roller tip like that.  Although I’ll not rule out a simple failure due to material fatigue, be sure to check for underlying causes.  Although the break you have is what I’d call a ‘no load induced failure’, it would be prudent to look for anything out of the ordinary in the valve train area.  This would include examining the underside of the rockers for any retainer to rocker clearance, double checking for spring coil bind, damper bind, retainer seal clearance, and inadequate shaft to rocker clearance to name few.  I’m assuming the roller wheel is still loose on the axle?  If not and the roller wheel is seized to the axle, then that could have been the root cause for the failure.

 

Other than issues with the adjuster studs on the Dove rockers, I’ve had only minor issues regarding shaft to rocker arm clearances.  The Dove roller rockers for the Y that I have been using have been repeatedly pulled to 7200 rpms without problems.  My altered roadster engine has used them since 2001 and both of my EMC engine entries used them.  The 2009 EMC entry had over 410 pounds over the nose pressure in order to go 7500 rpms and there were zero issues anywhere in the valve train.  But I still adhere to the rule that once aluminum rocker arms hit the 10 year old mark, I replace them.  It’s after that point that aluminum fatigue issues do start to crop up.  Years of FE experience with those rockers has set that rule.

 

I will be talking to Dove this week though and I’ll bring up your broken tip scenario and see what they say in regards to if there’s been a problem with roller tip pins loosening up or other issues that could be related to this.  The fact that your rocker tip is broken on its underside and not the top side eliminates quite a few possibilities and makes rocker failure itself high on the list.

 

Rocker Arm Specialist is just now coming back up to speed after some internal management issues over the last year so Y rockers on their end should be available again.  Harland Sharp is also making Y roller tipped rocker arm combinations for both the iron and aluminum heads so that’s another option.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

It's just oil.

It's a drop of oil.

Ted,

The wheel is still loose and turns smoothly on the axle.  I've examined these things to death because of previous issues.  If there's something wrong I'm just not experienced enough to spot it.  Everything you mention I've checked previously and is fine according to the best of my understanding.

How much is a set of harland sharp rockers and are they available as assemblies?  I looked at the website a couple days ago.  They're not in the catalog yet.

Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie.  The Harland Sharp rockers are not available as ready to go assemblies.  Up to now, I’ve been honing the individual rockers for the shaft to rocker arm fit but the guys at Custom Speed are working on addressing that so they are more easily installed by anyone.

 

I’ll have a better feel on current pricing when the four sets that are currently ordered arrive within the next week or so.  Pricing has been running about $125 a set higher than the Doves prior to this.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

[quote]Ted (7/24/2011)

---

"This would include examining the underside of the rockers for any retainer to rocker clearance, double checking for spring coil bind, damper bind, retainer seal clearance, and inadequate shaft to rocker clearance to name few."



Charlie, now that Ted mentions it when I first installed my rockers they were hitting the spring retainer when fully closed. I had to get longer push rods to rectify the problem. I don't think that is what caused your breakage but like Ted suggests check "the underside of the rockers for any retainer to rocker clearance".



Also came to mind, do you think it is at all possible that you have a valve to piston clearance problem? Remote, but thought I would throw it out there.



Best of luck to ya,

"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

Sorry to hear Charlie, Just too many failures for my liking, I have been running the stock hard on my engine with no problems.

Are you sure this is off your truck and not a spare engine you had just kicking around? whereas its close to Columbus time, you wouldn't be looking for an excuse would you?

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

I wish it was off of a spare engine.

Actually, this presents a bit of a different situation this year. I just bought my first house and so a lot of my spare cash is going towards buying furniture, painting, fixing stuff, lawn equipment, etc. I really didn't want to have to spend any money on the truck for the rest of the year. I have plenty of stuff that I've already purchased, wire harness, passenger side floor pan, rust preventative measures, etc. that I can work on and keep busy until the end of the year easily. Of course, first I have to get the garage arranged.

I can always put my old rockers back on... if I can find them. But I'll give the rocker arm specialist a call today. Hopefully they can get a set to me in the next couple weeks 'caus it's getting very close.


Lawrenceville, GA

Ted,

I reread your post and notice you say nothing about street engines. They are dragster or dyno engines. I've heard that aluminum rockers are not up to the task on a street engine. I don't tend to listen very well to that type of info because I like to find out for myself and I've learned that there is a lot of incorrect or misunderstood info as a result but it very well could be what is happening in this instance. Say a weekend racer actually manages to race every weekend of the year, and assume that he gets 10-15 runs in which is probably a lot, that's only 130-195 miles put on the engine a year. I'll do 3,000 - 4,000 a year easily. Granted, I'm not running it to 7000 rpm as the race car does but I'm doing half of that much of the time for longer duration and distance. Factor in the time idling in traffic, and it seems that the rockers get worked much harder on the street.


Lawrenceville, GA