Reworking the 273 Adjustable Rockers

toolmanmike said

Another thing I noticed with my set, there is only one oil hole per rocker and it looks like it should go towards the head (to the bottom) where all the wear is and all the oil is needed. What ever works its way around the shaft to the adjuster hole must be enough for a stock engine to keep the ball and cup lubricated. The small hole in the top must be there for spray to help cool the springs and to help lube the rocker tip to valve tip. There is no specific hole for that. All of my rockers have the holes in the top. Those of you that have plugged holes in a few of your rockers, I wonder if those rockers were placed below the pcv valve or oil fill cap to help prevent them from sucking or leaking oil. As we know, valve covers without baffles can be a problem that way and rockers that don't squirt oil directly at them could help the problem.

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I think you are using the shafts from a stamp steel rocker not the adjustable rocker ones. If so they are the perfect candidate for drilling holes where they need to be.
The hole in the top of the arm is to cool and lube the rocker and valve stem plus cool the moving parts of the valve assembly.
However this for a low rpm stock type motor not a 6000+ rpm one. At elevated rpm the oil is flung off the arm then while in suspension the rocker arm is beating it in to a spray mist.
A lack of a baffle can be messy as in oily messy.

In my pictures you see the bottom banana grove is forward of the hold down bolt. The back hole on the pushrod side is directly below the oil hole in the rocker arm for the pushrod oiling. These pictures are on the rear of the passenger side. Note that my notch is down where it should be.

Thank you again Yellow Rose, I just discovered that 4 of my rockers are rubbing the valve springs. That's what I get for letting a bowtie person assemble my motor.