Speedmaster Rockers

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matts69Dart

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So I ordered a set of the Speedmaster DNA Rockers for my 408 stroker on Black Friday. I was a bit hesitant because all of the photos showed them as containing roller bearings instead of bushings, so wasn't I happily surprised when they arrived and they are bronze bushed. They look really good and came with a ton of spacers of all sizes. The shafts look really good also. It will be a while until I actually have them in a running engine, but will let you know when they are running.
 
matts69Dart said:
So I ordered a set of the Speedmaster DNA Rockers for my 408 stroker on Black Friday. I was a bit hesitant because all of the photos showed them as containing roller bearings instead of bushings, so wasn't I happily surprised when they arrived and they are bronze bushed. They look really good and came with a ton of spacers of all sizes. The shafts look really good also. It will be a while until I actually have them in a running engine, but will let you know when they are running.
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Call Mike at B3racingengines.com and have him hook you up with a geometry correction kit.

It needs it.
 
I prefer the bushed roller rockers myself. JMO 65
 
Any aluminum rocker offerings from Speedmaster would scare the hell out of me. Are any of them worth a ****?
 
For a "mild" street engine, they will probably be fine. If you start throwing any serious HP at them, I would opt for something else.
 
I have a ruined set of them that came on a car that I bought. Geometry was off and wrong valve spring retainers.

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Not sure that they would be worth the time and expense. Several are gouged pretty deep and they are not bushed. Just wanted to show what happens if you don't pay attention to retainer and possible geometry issues.
 
mygasser said:
so machine them for retainer clearance or fit beehive springs and retainers?
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if you need to machine them for retainer clearence your geometry is off and your shafts need to be relocated . B3 Racing will help you out .
 
CRUZE 418 said:
Not sure that they would be worth the time and expense. Several are gouged pretty deep and they are not bushed. Just wanted to show what happens if you don't pay attention to retainer and possible geometry issues.
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Plus I would think those gouges would present stress risers - not a good thing for aluminum rockers.
 
I have the same rockers but they came with roller bearings. There were clearance issues and I had to do quite a bit of work with them before they would fit.

Just before I finished going through them I learned about B3 Racing and their geometry correction kits. I would highly recommend looking into that first before doing what I did.

I used a dremel to get them to fit the retainers. I colored the area with a sharpie, installed for a test fit, and ground more wherever there were clearance issues. Most of them did not require a whole lot of material to be removed, so I am hoping that I did not weaken them significantly.

It would appear that the original machining on the ones I got had more clearance than those that CRUZE had.

I also could not find any way the roller tips ro get oil, so I drilled the smallest hole I could into the top of the rocker. Hopefully it actually gets some to the rocker and doesn't just spray it everywhere. If you look closely you can see where in that last picture.

I just got the engine back in the car after getting it back from machine shop purgatory. I have run it through the cam break in procedure, but I haven't had the valve covers off yet to see how things are holding up in there. I will update once I do.

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74RRunner said:
I have the same rockers but they came with roller bearings. There were clearance issues and I had to do quite a bit of work with them before they would fit.

Just before I finished going through them I learned about B3 Racing and their geometry correction kits. I would highly recommend looking into that first before doing what I did.

I used a dremel to get them to fit the retainers. I colored the area with a sharpie, installed for a test fit, and ground more wherever there were clearance issues. Most of them did not require a whole lot of material to be removed, so I am hoping that I did not weaken them significantly.

It would appear that the original machining on the ones I got had more clearance than those that CRUZE had.

I also could not find any way the roller tips ro get oil, so I drilled the smallest hole I could into the top of the rocker. Hopefully it actually gets some to the rocker and doesn't just spray it everywhere. If you look closely you can see where in that last picture.

I just got the engine back in the car after getting it back from machine shop purgatory. I have run it through the cam break in procedure, but I haven't had the valve covers off yet to see how things are holding up in there. I will update once I do.

View attachment 1716337244View attachment 1716337246View attachment 1716337248View attachment 1716337250
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Have you checked to see how much material is left at the bottom of that notch?
 
mopowers said:
Have you checked to see how much material is left at the bottom of that notch?
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I have not. However, at least with the bearings, the center of the rocker has more material because it hasn't been machined out to make the bearings fit.

My thought is that most of the strength should be coming from the thicker outside edges.
 
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Thanks for the info on B3. I am going to get them all set up and see how the pushrod clearance is before I think about the geometry set. Not worried about retainer issues as my engine guy installed behave springs when he cleaned up the valve job.
 
matts69Dart said:
Thanks for the info on B3. I am going to get them all set up and see how the pushrod clearance is before I think about the geometry set. Not worried about retainer issues as my engine guy installed behave springs when he cleaned up the valve job.
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Beehive springs won't fix the geometry. If it needs a beehive to not hit the rocker it didn't fix anything.
 
he didn't say the springs were used for clearance issues, just that they were fitted when the valve job was done. clearance wasn't the primary reason the beehive springs were designed after all, it was to lighten the valve train. :thumbsup:
 
mygasser said:
he didn't say the springs were used for clearance issues, just that they were fitted when the valve job was done. clearance wasn't the primary reason the beehive springs were designed after all, it was to lighten the valve train. :thumbsup:
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Beehive springs were also designed to address spring harmonics on a given valvetrain system (in addition to reducing mass with smaller caps, etc).
 
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I actually installed the beehive because the original springs were garbage. We figured since we were changing them why not go with the beehive and alleviate any issues with retainer clearance. My machinist only concern now is possible pushrod interference. He actually thought the Speedmasters looked pretty good and flowed really well on his flow bench. He liked them enough to order a bare set to play with for himself. He is a diehard Mopar guy with about 40 years experience building them.
 
Plymouth 65 said:
I prefer the bushed roller rockers myself. JMO 65
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It's a no brainer. The bushings have MUCH more load bearing area than the needle bearings do. Just make sure you put nanner grooves in the shafts if you don't have them in there.
 
I spoke to Mike at one point and was told you have to clearance the head for the pushrod if you use one of his kits. So if you've bolted the heads on, go ahead and order another set of head gaskets first.
 
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