Edelbrock Victor small block head……

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Hey guys, I read everything that was discussed on this thread and can't believe that its still an active feed haha. Anyway, I've had a set of these Victor heads since 2018. Had them on a 318 and now a 340 bored and stroked to 422 ci. The heads themselves are great but I keep having problems with the relation between the lifters, pushrods, and rockers. Just discovered I had bent a pushrod on cylinder 5 exhaust valve and the cylinder 5 intake pushrod was broken at the cup that connects to the rocker. Just figured I'd throw this out there since this has been an ongoing problem with these heads. And before anyone asks or advises, yes I already took the spark plug out of cylinder 5, looking inside with a bored scope and there is NO sign of collision between the valves and piston heads. I have strong feeling it has something to do with the(in my opinion) harsh angle of the pushrods for the intake valves that's causing them to bend so frequently.
 
T. Fritz said:
Hey guys, I read everything that was discussed on this thread and can't believe that its still an active feed haha. Anyway, I've had a set of these Victor heads since 2018. Had them on a 318 and now a 340 bored and stroked to 422 ci. The heads themselves are great but I keep having problems with the relation between the lifters, pushrods, and rockers. Just discovered I had bent a pushrod on cylinder 5 exhaust valve and the cylinder 5 intake pushrod was broken at the cup that connects to the rocker. Just figured I'd throw this out there since this has been an ongoing problem with these heads. And before anyone asks or advises, yes I already took the spark plug out of cylinder 5, looking inside with a bored scope and there is NO sign of collision between the valves and piston heads. I have strong feeling it has something to do with the(in my opinion) harsh angle of the pushrods for the intake valves that's causing them to bend so frequently.
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How fast are you going with them.
 
T. Fritz said:
Hey guys, I read everything that was discussed on this thread and can't believe that its still an active feed haha. Anyway, I've had a set of these Victor heads since 2018. Had them on a 318 and now a 340 bored and stroked to 422 ci. The heads themselves are great but I keep having problems with the relation between the lifters, pushrods, and rockers. Just discovered I had bent a pushrod on cylinder 5 exhaust valve and the cylinder 5 intake pushrod was broken at the cup that connects to the rocker. Just figured I'd throw this out there since this has been an ongoing problem with these heads. And before anyone asks or advises, yes I already took the spark plug out of cylinder 5, looking inside with a bored scope and there is NO sign of collision between the valves and piston heads. I have strong feeling it has something to do with the(in my opinion) harsh angle of the pushrods for the intake valves that's causing them to bend so frequently.
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It maybe a good idea to give Mike a call at B3 Racing he might be able to straighten things up with a relocation kit .
 
T. Fritz said:
Hey guys, I read everything that was discussed on this thread and can't believe that its still an active feed haha. Anyway, I've had a set of these Victor heads since 2018. Had them on a 318 and now a 340 bored and stroked to 422 ci. The heads themselves are great but I keep having problems with the relation between the lifters, pushrods, and rockers. Just discovered I had bent a pushrod on cylinder 5 exhaust valve and the cylinder 5 intake pushrod was broken at the cup that connects to the rocker. Just figured I'd throw this out there since this has been an ongoing problem with these heads. And before anyone asks or advises, yes I already took the spark plug out of cylinder 5, looking inside with a bored scope and there is NO sign of collision between the valves and piston heads. I have strong feeling it has something to do with the(in my opinion) harsh angle of the pushrods for the intake valves that's causing them to bend so frequently.
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Do you have offset seats in your lifters, or standard? Asking because I went with the offset version to try to relax the angles you’re talking about…don’t have the motor together yet.

Also, are you running solid roller lifters, or..?

Next, are you running the Hughes rockers?

What spring loads open and closed?

Edit: What lobe lift on the cam?

Lastly, what diameter and wall thickness on the pushrods?

Sorry for all the questions!!! Hoping you have info to share so that maybe I can avoid similar issues when I get mine together (probably next year). Thank you in advance!!!
 
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dusterbing the peace said:
Do you have offset seats in your lifters, or standard? Asking because I went with the offset version to try to relax the angles you’re talking about…don’t have the motor together yet.

Also, are you running solid roller lifters, or..?

Next, are you running the Hughes rockers?

What spring loads open and closed?

Edit: What lobe lift on the cam?

Lastly, what diameter and wall thickness on the pushrods?

Sorry for all the questions!!! Hoping you have info to share so that maybe I can avoid similar issues when I get mine together (probably next year). Thank you in advance!
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An engine builder friend used Hughes Rockers and had valvetrain issues. Swapped over to T&D rockers and the problems went away.
 
dusterbing the peace said:
Do you have offset seats in your lifters, or standard? Asking because I went with the offset version to try to relax the angles you’re talking about…don’t have the motor together yet.

Also, are you running solid roller lifters, or..?

Next, are you running the Hughes rockers?

What spring loads open and closed?

Edit: What lobe lift on the cam?

Lastly, what diameter and wall thickness on the pushrods?

Sorry for all the questions!!! Hoping you have info to share so that maybe I can avoid similar issues when I get mine together (probably next year). Thank you in advance!!!
Click to expand...
I currently have center/standard lifter seats, haven't had much luck finding offset ones. I am running hydraulic roller lifters. Yes I am using the Hughes roller rocker set and have verified the correct rockers are in the correct locations. I don't know the spring loads. Cam is a Thumper with .513int/.498exh lift. Pushrods are 5/16 diameter, I don't know the wall thickness off the top of my head.
 
T. Fritz said:
I currently have center/standard lifter seats, haven't had much luck finding offset ones. I am running hydraulic roller lifters. Yes I am using the Hughes roller rocker set and have verified the correct rockers are in the correct locations. I don't know the spring loads. Cam is a Thumper with .513int/.498exh lift. Pushrods are 5/16 diameter, I don't know the wall thickness off the top of my head.
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Thoughts on switching to a thicker wall 3/8 pushrod? Could provide more rigidity to prevent bending/deflection.

Thanks for the responses!
 
Something is horribly wrong.

You have a small can and you are killing parts.

B3racingengines.com is a MUST call.

I wouldn’t do a THING until I talked to Mike. I’m dead serious.

You shouldn’t have those issues even with a hydraulic roller.
 
la360 said:
An engine builder friend used Hughes Rockers and had valvetrain issues. Swapped over to T&D rockers and the problems went away.
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The Valley machine build used in the dyno competition used Hughes rocker gear, and the motor has now also been in a car several years without any issues.
I am not a big Hughes fan, but in fairness to them, after you saying what you did, making this point is valid.
Valley performance is very, very good shop.
 
B3422w5 said:
The Valley machine build used in the dyno competition used Hughes rocker gear, and the motor has now also been in a car several years without any issues.
I am not a big Hughes fan, but in fairness to them, after you saying what you did, making this point is valid.
Valley performance is very, very good shop.
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Yeah I’m not buying it’s a rocker arm issue. It’s geometry related. I’m not sure I would have picked that head for a hydraulic roller build.

That’s if I’m reading his post correctly.
 
T. Fritz said:
I currently have center/standard lifter seats, haven't had much luck finding offset ones. I am running hydraulic roller lifters. Yes I am using the Hughes roller rocker set and have verified the correct rockers are in the correct locations. I don't know the spring loads. Cam is a Thumper with .513int/.498exh lift. Pushrods are 5/16 diameter, I don't know the wall thickness off the top of my head.
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Couple more thoughts:

Since it happened on the same cylinder, maybe too much preload on the adjusters? Or not enough?

Or, have you checked retainer to valve guide clearance? Or the shim packs under these springs, may be binding the coils if something is set up different on #5.

Not being a jerk, have you floated the valves?

Also, did you have the heads checked out by a machine shop? I had some guides that were tight, although this may burn the valve first.

Just throwing more stuff out.
 
dusterbing the peace said:
Couple more thoughts:

Since it happened on the same cylinder, maybe too much preload on the adjusters? Or not enough?

Or, have you checked retainer to valve guide clearance? Or the shim packs under these springs, may be binding the coils if something is set up different on #5.

Not being a jerk, have you floated the valves?

Also, did you have the heads checked out by a machine shop? I had some guides that were tight, although this may burn the valve first.

Just throwing more stuff out.
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I had a machine shop look at the heads and even replace all the valves too because the 318 I had them on before broke a valve and had bent most of the others too(poor clearance in the bore). Like I mentioned before, the engine was still on its break-in period so high revving was off the table, at that point there's no way I could've floated the valves. It could've been a preload issue but I did cylinder 5 with the same preload as all the rest, why would this one let loose?
 
Newbomb Turk said:
Yeah I’m not buying it’s a rocker arm issue. It’s geometry related. I’m not sure I would have picked that head for a hydraulic roller build.

That’s if I’m reading his post correctly.
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I'm in agreeance, I think its geometry related as well. As for why the hydraulic roller build? Well that's because when I got the heads back in 2018 from Summit Racing, the only set of these heads they had in stock at the time where the ones set up for a hydraulic roller cam, so at that point my choices became more limited and I went with it.
 
T. Fritz said:
I had a machine shop look at the heads and even replace all the valves too because the 318 I had them on before broke a valve and had bent most of the others too(poor clearance in the bore). Like I mentioned before, the engine was still on its break-in period so high revving was off the table, at that point there's no way I could've floated the valves. It could've been a preload issue but I did cylinder 5 with the same preload as all the rest, why would this one let loose?
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Potentially they’re all on a similar path, and this was just the first to indicate the issue? I wish I had a better answer for you. Hoping all the best for you and that you find a quick and hopefully not too expensive resolution!!!
 
T. Fritz said:
I had a machine shop look at the heads and even replace all the valves too because the 318 I had them on before broke a valve and had bent most of the others too(poor clearance in the bore). Like I mentioned before, the engine was still on its break-in period so high revving was off the table, at that point there's no way I could've floated the valves. It could've been a preload issue but I did cylinder 5 with the same preload as all the rest, why would this one let loose?
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WHO suggested to you to put these heads on a damn 318.
 
pittsburghracer said:
WHO suggested to you to put these heads on a damn 318.
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Nobody, I was trying to achieve as high of compression as I could with the 318 naturally aspirated as I could and those heads had the smallest chambers so that's what I went with. I ended up getting that sucker up to 11.43:1 CR in the end. Reason I was after compression was because i was trying to do a 400hp NA build and upon some research I had found that between airflow and too low of compression normally, you can really wake those things up.
 
T. Fritz said:
Nobody, I was trying to achieve as high of compression as I could with the 318 naturally aspirated as I could and those heads had the smallest chambers so that's what I went with. I ended up getting that sucker up to 11.43:1 CR in the end. Reason I was after compression was because i was trying to do a 400hp NA build and upon some research I had found that between airflow and too low of compression normally, you can really wake those things up.
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A 2.15 valve is not a good idea on a 318 bore.
 
I think you need better pushrods. My Indy headed small block has terrible pushrod angle, stout springs and I've never bent a pushrod.
 
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