Rocker arm installation.

[ap6street]

Just bought my new t&d rockers for the indy heads after snapping the indy set.
Want to install these correct.
One thing I am just not 100% clear on is once all the pushrods are in geometry is all lined up and you are torquing down the shaft with rockers some of the valves are open and therefore will be loading straight onto the rockers while tightening down ?
Everywhere I read for si gle pedestal rockers says make sure the valves are closed as you tighten down as a strong warning.. So how does this not affect the mopar shaft rockers

 

[nm9stheham]

I'd expect that for single pedestal rockers (like for the Magnum type or 351C's), the problem is that, as you tighten them in place, but before the bottom of the pedestal sets firmly on the head's pad, 100% of any bending load that develops is taken by a single bolt alone. The bolts are not designed with that in mind; once the rocker pedestal is torqued down, then much/most of any bending load is taken by the pedestal.

With the shaft rockers, any such bending load is spread across multiple bolts.

 

[ap6street]

Ive tried to find some good info , but still in doubt.
Side shimming on this setup , what is a standard clearance between studs ??
.010 to .015 each side of the rockers ? .030 total between studs ?
and how accurate should the arms be over the valve stems, or should i try to keep pushrods more central , for the offset .800 intakes ?
any info and help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.


i also measured up for my pushrod lengths , and marked the valve stem to leave an impression . made a total of .09 roller tip travel over the stem and the slightest closer to the intake side overall ?
im under the impression there is not much that can be done to get this central ?

 

[famous bob]

Ive tried to find some good info , but still in doubt.
Side shimming on this setup , what is a standard clearance between studs ??
.010 to .015 each side of the rockers ? .030 total between studs ?
and how accurate should the arms be over the valve stems, or should i try to keep pushrods more central , for the offset .800 intakes ?
any info and help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.


i also measured up for my pushrod lengths , and marked the valve stem to leave an impression . made a total of .09 roller tip travel over the stem and the slightest closer to the intake side overall ?
im under the impression there is not much that can be done to get this central ?

I have never messed w/ indy heads, and am not an expert. Mine are victor type raised ports, that use offset rockers.
"The wedges suck compared to setting up a hemi!"
I am running about .010 - /.012 between ( bushed) rockers all the way thru, seems to be working fine. Ge the contact patch dead centered, and as little swipe path as possible, mine is about 1/16", roughly . Pushrod length affect this greatly., unless ur heads are really messed up.
U can keep the feelers in between the rockers while tightening the bolts down, evenly , a small amount at a time . Don't overtighten the bolts/ studs , u`ll eggshape the shaft! I do have full time oiling to the shafts too.
Hang on this will be a ***** before ur done ! LOL
There are a couple of guys on here that "are" experts at this, maybe they`ll chime in and add something .

 

[nm9stheham]

As far as I know, the side clearance is the total between shaft retainers. I have set for .015-.020" before.

OP how much lift are you running? The minimum width of the sweep pattern will increase with lift. .090" is not awful but it is not optimum either. The way to change this is to modify the height of the shaft center line relative to the height of the valve tip. The sweep width is minimized when the center of the shaft is on a line drawn across the top of the valve tip, AT mid lift. There is a fellow over here who makes kits for this and his website with tech info is here: B3 Racing Engines LLC - Mopar Rocker Arm Geometry Tech

The sweep pattern being perfectly centered on the valve tip is NOT important for a roller rocker; just make sure it does not get very close to the edge.

 

[ap6street]

It's 650 lift at the valve with the 1.65 ratio now.
I'll have a look at the site thanks

 

[nm9stheham]

Off the top of my head, minimum sweep width would be something in the .040-.050" range for that lift.

 

[B3RE]

Ive tried to find some good info , but still in doubt.
Side shimming on this setup , what is a standard clearance between studs ??
.010 to .015 each side of the rockers ? .030 total between studs ?
and how accurate should the arms be over the valve stems, or should i try to keep pushrods more central , for the offset .800 intakes ?
any info and help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.


i also measured up for my pushrod lengths , and marked the valve stem to leave an impression . made a total of .09 roller tip travel over the stem and the slightest closer to the intake side overall ?
im under the impression there is not much that can be done to get this central ?

I wish I would have been able to speak with you before you ordered rockers. I have T&D make custom rockers to my spec for Mopar applications. My system would have the sweep width half of what it is now, and be much more stable overall.

Trying to get the "off the shelf" T&Ds corrected is going to be a fight because they are much longer than they need to be when the shaft height is correct. And, the smaller shafts don't give much room to offset the shaft bolt holes.

My rockers, which include the shaft relocation necessary for any roller rocker, is comparably priced, so you may want to consider returning yours while they are still new. This isn't about making a sale, it's about making it right. There is that much of a difference!