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Help with rocker arms.
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2023 6:03 pm
by Jimbol
Building my first vw and getting to rocker arms. The end of adjustors have little flat spots on them. It has a Engle w100 with single high rev springs. So my question is do I just run them, redneck reface them, get new stock but what are good ones, or some elephant foot, something. Kind of at a stand still and need to do something.
Re: Help with rocker arms.
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2023 11:36 pm
by Bruce.m
Not sure you need swivel feet for that cam and quality can be hit or miss.
However, I bought stock items new last year and the machining of the tip was disappointing. It had slight ridges in rings. Not the quality of the original parts. I’ve yet to use them so can’t comment on whether they will be okay.
My personal preference for a mild engine would be genuine nos or good used, if you can find them.
Re: Help with rocker arms.
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 12:02 am
by Piledriver
I gave up on the new stock replacements.
I ran refaced ancient good used ones from the 70s, basically folded over some wetordry sandpaper and spun them in a drill in the palm of my hand on the abrasive, with a few drops of oil. Worked my way through to 600 grit, gave them a bit of polish on some leather with Mothers, and ran them for 150k miles, they still looked fine. (good oil helps a lot) Put a nice radii on them that worked well. Did have to replace a couple soft ones at first oil change, but after that they all looked awesome.
Best to look for some that are a bit worn but not all galled or flatspotted badly.
Switched over to Porsche 911 swivel feet at that point but those have gotten stupidly expensive, not really required with a near stock cam.
I have seen the genuine Ford/Mazda ones last awhile (have a ball with a flat spot) but the aftermarket ones tend to destroy things.
CB makes some 911 alikes that have had good feedback but again, for near stock not needed.
Re: Help with rocker arms.
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:59 pm
by Jimbol
Thanks for the info, Guess I'll be doin the redneck reface??
Re: Help with rocker arms.
Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2023 1:25 am
by Piledriver
Pretty much, but it works most of the time with old screws.
pull the screws on the first 2-3 oil changes/valve adjustments, you can see the good or bad and throw out the bad.
If the valve adjustment did not change skip removing them after awhile:
IME the screws are the culprit much of the time.
(the soft ones will change the valve adjustment as they get beaten to death)
The "use good oil" bit was intended for a running engine, helps protect the screws from galling.
There are whole websites devoted to that subject...
I'd like to mention shimming or having the rocker pads machined a bit can aid rocker geometry, bu if you are building a ~stock engine its a lot less critical.
Do note that valve keepers should not got completely around the valve, must be a slight gap or they do not clamp the valve.
If they go completely around with no gap, the grooves are likely to pound out, this is how you swallow a whole valve.
Re: Help with rocker arms.
Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:04 am
by Ol'fogasaurus
To add to Pile's post, remember that the rocker arms have an arc to them (small contact area but can cause wear problems) as they come into contact with the valve stems so any, even small, miss-alignment can help in causing the valve guides to wear faster as well as other things.
Also, like the valves being not adjusted correctly, the material of the face of the rocker arm's contact area can (be "hammered") compact and add to the miss-alignment or the "hammering" can pound a deeper contact area (one of the reasons for "dressing" the area) adding to the valve gap.
This was a problem back in the early days of hot rodding mostly after WWII. OHV engines and "F-head" engines often had the problem as well as did "valve-in-block" engines (no rocker arms). Parts were not designed back then for the abuse they were given and some of the replacement parts were even worse than stock ones were.
For those who down know what "F-head" engines are:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=F-head+en ... 9cc8b5f45e
Lee