Xlint,

Spoke with Larry. All he had for me was advice to abandon the 1.8 ratio rockers and an offer for his rockers.

Thanks. Brad.

Sutphen,

Don’t tempt me. Hell, I could open up the holes myself. I’ve got all the tooling and hardware that would be required. I could even open them to 1/2-13, which ARP has an option for that is plenty tall enough, or install HeliCoils for 7/16-14, and take advantage of an opportunity to move them away from the valves a bit, as the builder is not totally happy with where the roller tip is. As of right now, he is working out some shorter pushrods that will tilt the rockers away from the valves and move the roller tip where he wants it.

We are retaining the OEM cam. The .510” lift theoretically becomes .540” lift with the 1.8 ratio rockers.

Thanks. Brad.

No need to reinvent the wheel. Tap them out to 7/16-14 and screw in some off the shelf studs.

Snap,

It would seem to me that regular Joes having an off the shelf option for what I can't imagine is a totally unique situation would be less reinvention of the wheel than having to modify heads.

What I'm considering doing would provide do-it-yourselfers a credit card option for a roller rocker upgrade.

But, maybe, I am the first person.... ever.... to try and install roller rockers on OEM 8.1 Vortec heads and actually see the polylock thread engagement as a potential point of failure. Who knows....

For the record... I have no issue with tapping the heads for larger base thread rocker studs. I have that capacity, too, and it would, by far, be the easiest route. And, as I said previously, this would provide the opportunity to move the stud slightly away from the valve, improving contact centering of the roller on the valve tip.

Thanks. Brad.

You can buy longer polylocks to have better thread engagement. My buddy did that on his this past summer when he changed from the factory rockers to 1.7 roller rockers. Originally his didn't have much thread engagement either and he didn't like it. I don't remember who manufactured them but they weren't that expensive.

CDail,

The issue isn’t the length of the polylock. It’s that the studs don’t extend enough above the rocker trunnion at proper rocker geometry. If anything, the polylocks couple probably be shorter.

Thanks.

Guys,

From the looks of it, this was likely a non-starter out of the gate. I've gotten two no-quotes and a ridonkulous quote from a third vendor on the thread rolling. It would be far cheaper for me to use the "customs" ARP has on the shelf. I suspected this would be the case for the QTYs I asked for (two sets of 16), but it was worth the ask.

Carry on....

Thanks. Brad.

This is the better route...tapping for a 7/16" stud. Your method of fabricarion, though courageous and worthy etc...you still end up with a 3/8" sized rocker stud...far less than optimal.

Same issue with the 088 head non-adjustable racker systems. 3/8" studs into the head. Drill/tap is the best method.

BTW...ARPs price on those seem a little steep, despite the custom work.

ARP makes a conversion stud for those. I have used them several times with fairly high spring pressures and have not had a problem.

Tartilla,

My hope was to try and help those who didn’t have the readily available option to do the machine work. The M10 threaded stud they offer is plenty strong enough for most applications involving the stock 496 heads. I would think most who are getting into valve springs that might challenge the limits of the M10 threaded stud would have abandoned the stock heads prior.

Yes. I totally agree on the price being egregious. I mean, I would probably charge more for the QTY I inquired about, but I’m not a bespoke MFR, dedicated to a specific product like ARP is. The change I was asking for would involve a simply programming change, and the parts could have risen along through the rest of the operations (heat treat, thread rolling, black oxide, etc…). I expected a small premium for them, but good GOD…. My guess is they’ll sit on the shelf forever. I can’t imagine being so desperate for a solution that someone was actually willing to pay that for them initially.

Thanks. Brad.