Need a little rocker arm help

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BARRACUDA340S

BARRACUDA340S

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I bought the 360-2 heads for my 416 about 10 years ago. I might have 1500 miles on the motor now. The car has pretty much sat since 2007. I get it out a few times a year. Anyway I fired it up yesterday and the valve train was unusually noisy. Solid lift cam but something was off so I shut it down and pulled the valve covers. Oil everywhere which was good but I grabbed an intake rocker and it was real loose on lash. I just set the valves maybe 200 miles ago. Looked at push rods and could see they had a bunch of heat in them so I pulled the rocker shafts. Sure enough I had 3 rockers that mushroomed the push rod cup and beat up the adjust ball. Looks like lack of oil creating heat.

Shafts are fine, cleaned them up on the lathe with emery cloth but prior to that a couple rockers were starting to get tight.

I don't think I have an oiling issue here as far as the oil pump, pressure etc. I'm wondering if I'm letting the car sit too long between firing it up and I'm dry starting the motor. Or do I have a rocker arm issue?

A friend of mine who's and engine builder, mostly GM stuff looked at the rockers and asked me why there's no bearing (aluminum rocker to metal shaft) and also why the oiling holes in the rockers don't have a channel from the center of the rocker to the oiling hole? I told him that's the way they are unless there's something better out now that wasn't around when I bought the heads.

I also have one intake rocker that wasn't machined all the way on the oiling channel.

Bad rocker



All the rest where done right



exhaust rocker arms, no groove for oil.



Push rods



Where do I go from here? I've been out of the Mopar scene now for 8 years doing other projects.

I know I need new push rods and rocker adjusters.

Where can I get the rocker adjusters? I believe these rocker arms are Indy's. Do I need to modify them for better oiling or move on to a better rocker?

I need to get the car running by Friday. I'm committed to an event and the car needs to be there.

Any help here would be appreciated.

Thanks Brett
 
Had a set of rockers that looked identical to those, and they were PRW rockers, and they were crap! barely oiled and had the same wear on the side of the rocker as you show. Mine didnt heat up like yours though. Take a look at your valve stems, mine werent oiling there and made little wear marks on the stems, needless to say those rockers are still sitting on my shop floor and will never touch one of my engines again.

So I yanked those off and put on a set of comp cams ultra pro magnums, should have spent the money the first time. Have a bout 700 miles on them with a pretty big solid roller cam. Lash has never changed and they show zero wear and oil really good. Worth it completely.

Also check your clearance for the pushrod holes, it looks like they were rubbing on the heads.
 
What brand pushrod, and were they hardened? How bad ,do the adjustment balls look? Had a similar situation with cheapo Cat roller rockers, & hardened Crower pushrods. The adjustment balls weren't hardened, the pushrods were. Turned the adjustment balls down to a step, just like a lathe. Replacement of the balls with hardened Comp stuff,problem solved. It sounds like a similar metallurgy problem, I.M.O.
 
DartVadar said:
Had a set of rockers that looked identical to those, and they were PRW rockers, and they were crap! barely oiled and had the same wear on the side of the rocker as you show. Mine didnt heat up like yours though. Take a look at your valve stems, mine werent oiling there and made little wear marks on the stems, needless to say those rockers are still sitting on my shop floor and will never touch one of my engines again.

So I yanked those off and put on a set of comp cams ultra pro magnums, should have spent the money the first time. Have a bout 700 miles on them with a pretty big solid roller cam. Lash has never changed and they show zero wear and oil really good. Worth it completely.

Also check your clearance for the pushrod holes, it looks like they were rubbing on the heads.
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These rockers look suspicious. The quality is poor IMO. I bought these heads 10 years ago when they first came out. Can't remember but at that time I don't know if I had any other options other than these rockers? I see the wear on the push rods like it's contacting the head. The push rods isn't damaged in any way at those marks so for now I have to run with it until I have more time to do surgery. No way to clearance anything with the heads on the motor. I'm ordering new adjusters for the rockers today and will get new push rods coming tomorrow. I need to get the car to a car show I'm committed to next weekend and after that I can regroup. I'm trailering so I'll be ok with new parts for now.
 
Abodybomber said:
What brand pushrod, and were they hardened? How bad ,do the adjustment balls look? Had a similar situation with cheapo Cat roller rockers, & hardened Crower pushrods. The adjustment balls weren't hardened, the pushrods were. Turned the adjustment balls down to a step, just like a lathe. Replacement of the balls with hardened Comp stuff,problem solved. It sounds like a similar metallurgy problem, I.M.O.
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Can't remember what brand push rods these are? There's no name on any of them. I built this motor 10 years ago. I either got them from Scott Brown or Ryan at Shady Dell so I'm sure they're good stuff. Scott did my cam and Ryan did my heads.

I have 3 adjustment balls that are bad as well as 3 push rods. The rest look fine. 2 on the drivers side of the motor and 1 on the passenger side. I don't remember what my spring pressures are but I have a solid roller cam with 621/624 lift so if I'm starving the valve train of oil it wouldn't take much for parts to start clearancing themselves.
 
Congratulations you have just reached the end of your stock indy rocker arms. The next step is T&D. The problem is when they are brand new they just barley squeak by in the oiling department. But as they age and the tolerances loosen up burning pushrod tips become a Normal occurrence. I have 360-1's and have been fighting this problem since 2002, then last year I bought T&D's and now the problem is solved. Mine is a race engine that makes right at 700hp and will rev to 7,500 thru the traps on a 1/4 squirt. Sorry to spend your money.
 
I run Hughes aluminum roller rockers and have no issues. Geometry was perfect when I installed them.
 
mderoy340 said:
I run Hughes aluminum roller rockers and have no issues. Geometry was perfect when I installed them.
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Your statement is completely irrelevant to this topic. These are rocker arms for an Indy head 360-2 with two different size offsets. 0.080" exhaust and 0.800" intake. Please tell me the part number of the one's that Hughes sells for this application?
 
dart19666 said:
Congratulations you have just reached the end of your stock indy rocker arms. The next step is T&D. The problem is when they are brand new they just barley squeak by in the oiling department. But as they age and the tolerances loosen up burning pushrod tips become a Normal occurrence. I have 360-1's and have been fighting this problem since 2002, then last year I bought T&D's and now the problem is solved. Mine is a race engine that makes right at 700hp and will rev to 7,500 thru the traps on a 1/4 squirt. Sorry to spend your money.
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Glad to hear this actually. Where is the best place to buy the rockers?
 
dart19666 said:
Your statement is completely irrelevant to this topic. These are rocker arms for an Indy head 360-2 with two different size offsets. 0.080" exhaust and 0.800" intake. Please tell me the part number of the one's that Hughes sells for this application?
Click to expand...

My error. I have j heads. Didn't know Indy was different. Always willing to learn something new. Thanks
 
Brett, I can't help with your rocker issues. But I was just wondering. I thought you were running Brodix heads. Am I dreaming or did you change them out to the Indy's?

Jack
 
I have a set of indy rocker arms and shafts with push rods that i will sell extra cheap. Make offer. Will get you going till T&D's could be had.
 
I also have the 360-2 heads that came with the Indy rockers when I bought them. After doing a lot of research, I found out they won't stand up to the Solid Roller I plan to run. So I sold them and bought a set of T&D off of Amazon!
 
Coyote Jack said:
Brett, I can't help with your rocker issues. But I was just wondering. I thought you were running Brodix heads. Am I dreaming or did you change them out to the Indy's?

Jack
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I started with ported Eddy's and switched to these after the car hit the magazine. Probably in 2005. I made an extra 125 HP at the tire just switching from the Eddy's to these and a cam change.
 
dart19666 said:
I have a set of indy rocker arms and shafts with push rods that i will sell extra cheap. Make offer. Will get you going till T&D's could be had.
Click to expand...

I'm going to make a decision tomorrow on the rockers. I can make mine work for the show I need to make on Saturday as long as I can get push rods in time which shouldn't be a problem. I'm probably going to do what you did and change rockers.
 
BARRACUDA340S said:
I'm going to make a decision tomorrow on the rockers. I can make mine work for the show I need to make on Saturday as long as I can get push rods in time which shouldn't be a problem. I'm probably going to do what you did and change rockers.
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Good choice.
 
I got everything back together and it sounds happy again. I'll be able to make the show without hurting the motor.

One thing I noticed when changing cup plugs in the shafts so I could clean the shafts out real good. One shaft had all 5 holes drilled the same ID. Basically that shaft had no stability other than the 5 shaft retainers. Both shafts were very crude on the inside. Holes were drilled by manufacturer and nothing was cleaned up on the inside. Very crude.
 
mderoy340 said:
I run Hughes aluminum roller rockers and have no issues. Geometry was perfect when I installed them.
Click to expand...
This is the way to go>>>> Hughes!! <<<< One of the best Mopar Rockers on the market.
Although T&D's are hard to beat as well. I think the Hughes are cheaper...
 
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