And here’s a couple of pics of Y’s with roller rocker arms. One with solid bushings between the rockers and another using springs.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Here’s a link to a past thread discussing iron versus aluminum on the rocker arm shafts.

http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/FindPost4892.aspx

I would have to guess that the aluminum stands are ultimately less expensive to produce than iron simply due to both the Y’s, FE’s, and LYB’s using aluminum for the bread and butter stuff. Performance applications and some of the trucks applications used iron.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Pics of the spacers in (unposted) G heads from a 50's Nascar Y







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South Australia

Perhaps a future dyno test can be preformed to find out if there is an ideal spring tension.


Lawrenceville, GA

Even tho this does not pertain directly to the Y or FE The GMC 6 I have raced for years has a similar design. I made my own roller rockers using Torrington bearings on the stock shaft and Isky pined rollers tips. The stands were also made for the additional lift and off set. There is a pin hole on the end front stand so the original shaft can not rotate but can be assembled in either direction but not upside down for the original oiling which was thru the original shaft fed thru a hole in the head and fitting from the main gallery.

Long story short the original shaft broke at the end stand right on the line the pin was to hold it from rotating. My first thought was to support the end but it would be a tough design due to the lack of space. I chose to make a new shaft. (wish I could remember the starting material). The shaft is approx 30" long and the original center hole was 1/2". I found a place to rifle drill it at 3/8" . Brought it to a centerless grinding shop to get the preliminary diameter, drilled all the oiling holes, had it heat treated, and then finished ground. All this under the grinding shop directions. I'm sure this one will never break and being a lot smarter this time made 2.

This may not be right for the Fords. but racing takes it's toll and everything always finding the next weakest part. Took a lot of driving around and finding some one to do each part of what needed done. Luckily So Cal hasn't closed everything.....Good Luck

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

No, actually it was a Chuck Daigh car, not the Spencer Tbird. Memory was a little foggy.

57 Black Tbird 312/auto

Mark

Which Spincer 56 did you see? Was it this one?

http://www.kirkfwhite.com/1st.html

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.

Although engineers had much more autonomy in a corporate environment in those days, I agree that going to steel posts was probably an economic decision. For the same geometry and load, aluminum has three times the deflection as steel. However, based on intuition alone, it seems that most of the deflection in the post would occur in the upper "hoop" region between the two bolts, and that this deflection would be relatively small compared with the deflection in the shaft in the midway region between posts. Therefore, it seems that whether the posts are made of aluminum or steel - it would have minimal effect on the maximum deflection at a rocker arm.

I just happen to have my rocker arm assembly apart right now, and just for fun I weighed an aluminum post. It weighs 2 oz. Eight posts, then, would weigh 1 lb. Steel posts made to the same geometry would weigh 3 lb. So the total weight penalty by going to steel posts would be 2 lb per engine - not much.

Thanks Ted. I have been wondering now why Ford made the changes in the rocker shaft for the FE. Making holes in the shaft for the mounting bolts doesn't seem to make sense when compared to the earlier Y block arrangement.

57 Black Tbird 312/auto

In dynoing some of the higher horsepower Y’s, it’s been found that using the springs instead of solid spacers between the rockers has been worth some additional horsepower. It’s surmised that the springs actually stops some of the unwanted ‘free’ movement of the rockers when they are between valve actions which helps to stabilize the valve train in general.

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I suspect this would also be the case for the FE’s in some instances but I’ve never had the opportunity to test both scenarios on the same FE engine.

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If there’s a weak point in the roller rocker arms for the Y, it would be in the amount of offset for the pushrods and/or roller tips. Some manufacturers adds the offset to the roller tips while others do it solely at the adjuster. This offset is generally necessary to align the roller tip with the valve stem while centering the pushrod within the pushrod hole in the head. These offsets puts a side pressure on the rocker at the shaft and can potentially cause the roller tip to fail prematurely due to the roller tip being forced into not seating squarely on the valve tip. I’ll also add that if the clearance is too great between the shaft and the ‘offset’ rocker, then oiling is also uneven creating the potential for some premature wear in that area. This is just food for thought.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)