I am about ready to complete my new motor packages and when rotating the motor before preloading the roller rockers, the rocker stud breaks and flies up in the air. I'm thinking this is not good...but maybe just one bad one..... Then another one breaks... The heads are Big Brodie, Brodix and the studs came with the heads(New). The studs were torqued to 50 ft. lbs. I went out and got a complete set of studs for the motor. My 2 questions are, has any one else seen this and should I assume that the other studs in my other motor are defective? I would need to disassemble and swap out.

The rockers weren't hitting anything nor did they even have a fraction of the load that the springs would deliver. My pushrod length was also selected using an adjustable pushrod. This is the puzzling thing.

This may be/sound redundant, but perhaps you could send them back to Brodix, and have them send you some new ones or give you a refund---but then you still may not know exactly what you're getting from them. The "ARP" brand fasteners are usually some of the best fasteners out on the market, I would select some of thier products. I recently bought some new sets of heads and I prefered to buy them bare with valves only. One set had the wrong exhaust valves---we called the factory and they sent out the correct valves.

I am hearing of other guys who buy new heads complete from the factory finding mismatched parts, or wrong applications of springs, etc. I bought bare heads with valves, but I still elected to take them to a competent machine shop, bought the springs, retainers, locks, seals, studs, etc. from them, and have them inspected, and all checked out, cleaned, and precision assembled---- even though they are new from the factory. We also requested a certain clearence on the guides from the factory, and yet still found that the guides were too tight, and had to be honed for proper clearence for a marine appication.

Even though they may be new from a factory that mass produces parts which leaves plenty of room for error, there is still value in taking them to a precision machine shop who you trust, and has a good reputation, and have them checked/inspected/assembled, etc.

I don't know if this helped you much, but I thought it was a good thing to bring up with your problem. I guess if your studs had to break it is best that they broke now (the way they did), instead of out on the lake.

Thanks Kaama, The ARP's are exactly what I bought locally, Tyler Crockett assembled the valves and springs so I feel good about those parts. I wanted to put top shelf things in and this sort of thing happens. Makes you wonder how many of the bad studs are out there. Tyler was going to call Brodix and see what they have to say. But now it is just gonna cost me more labor, and yes I'm glad this happened when it did. Any other possible causes other than defective metal?