Need some advice...

Built 454 w/ a Procharger set-up running mid-80's on the GPS. The drive train is a full roller set-up by Crane Cams. The rockers are the cast alloy roller tips with the standard cradle bolt and stud fastners.

Problem... Lost on rocker last season with it breaking the stud just below the threads (ARP Studs). Pulled everthing out and found major burnt oil on the inside of the rocker. When I examine the others, on one rocker it showed close to the same condition - just didn't break yet. All the others were in good shape with no damage or burnt oil. What happened and how can it be prevented??? New full roller rockers are on order from Teague (Crane Gold), but what caused it.

They do have 400+ hours on them....


Red Racer

It overheated and siezed. Same thing happened to me with a worn out HARLAN SHARP full roller rocker arm. It also broke the stud off at the thread. I just replaced all the studs with new ones and bought a set of chrome molly rockers. With the old ones you could feel that they were worn.

The needle bearings within the fulcrum of any roller rocker arm can get worn after a while. If you take a roller rocker arm in your hands and with your fingers on each end of the fulcrum shaft, move/roll the rocker arm on its fulcrum/axis and if they don't feel smooth as silk then they're going away and getting bad on you. This should at least be done on ALL used roller rocker arms before re-installing them back on an engine that has just been newly rebuilt or otherwise. Do not always assume that they're always in good condition.

Some rocker arm compainies have rebuild programs where you can send in your old worn out roller rocker arms and they will rebuild them for you for less than the cost of new ones.

Kaama is correct. At the end of the season I normally pull all of my rockers, bag them and drop them off at Jesel. They clean and replace any needed parts and rebox. The cost is minimal and it eliminates a lot of mid season aggravation!

Kaama is correct. At the end of the season I normally pull all of my rockers, bag them and drop them off at Jesel. They clean and replace any needed parts and rebox. The cost is minimal and it eliminates a lot of mid season aggravation!

For how cheap they are I just replace them with a new set each year.. I ran the crane golds this year and found a few that weren't to smooth rollin after 97 hrs, sold them on ebay for $120 and just bought a new set. I don't like the thought of running used stuff..


Travis

Tinkerboater....

What do mean that they overheated?????

Good oil pressure and plenty cool #'s at the water temp gauge. What could cause the overheating - should we change over to a thicker oil, synthetics, heavier oil pump????

To change the subject... Reworking the rocker every season or two will be added to my winter routine, but with headers it takes a good couple of hours. I heard there are 2-piece valve cover to help, any direction where to find them????

There may be some problem with the lifters not flowing enough oil to those bad rockers or maybe the pushrods are partially obstructed. Pull the distributor and prime the oil pump with a drill while observing the oil flow from the pushrods. You will have to be turning the crank with a socket while you are doing this. This will show you the oil flow from each lifter/pushrod. Inspect the lifters on those rockers (maybe even disassemble those lifters) and clean out the pushrods very well.
Sincerely
Dennis Moore

Had problems with CompCams and Erson rockers in the past...but never with Crane Golds.
Our Merc525's ran 500+ hard hours with the Merc installed Crane Golds...Make sure you use the Golds not the budget Energizers.

Redracer/ Eickert makes a trick valve cover that is two piece. They are around $350. Give them a call 386-446-0660. If you would like, I am putting together a group purchase and can get a decent price. Let me know. Bob 609-923-0631.