Rocker arms roller repair!!! with pics!!!

[86Shelby]

I've been working on polishing the pins over the past couple days. They have been cleaning up alright so far. Only taking .0002-3" off the diameter and the finish is 95% to where I want it to be. I just need to find some finer abrasive to get it perfect(currently stopped with 1500 grit). I want to find a lathe to help do this more efficient.

Overall things are moving along alright.

[86Shelby]

I have a status update on these today. I had ended up polishing the pins with progressively finer paper up to 2500 grit. They have a nice polished look and feel to them, no roughness at all. So far I've put about 500 miles on the modified rollers. They are still nice and tight, no roughness. I'll have one taken apart in the next couple days. I did find that my intake cam journals did not line up perfectly with the bores in the head, 2 of them stuck out a little bit. This caused a little bit of an interference issue as the pins moved side to side a bit. I don't think the damage is worth junking any of the parts; I simply moved the offending rockers around so they are not next to journals that stick out. Good & bad here are the pics.

Good cam journal, no contact.


Good pin, not contact.


This end of the pin was in contact with the journal pictured next. Obviously the hardened pin won the battle.


Yes, it's worn down quite a bit. I do feel that if the casting was better and the journal actually ran in the center of the bore instead of off to one side this would not have happened.

[LowSL2]

If you look in the last pic you can see where the pin contacted the head as well. I guess you found out where that noise was coming from.

[86Shelby]

Those marks are in that spot on every divider in the head, and also on my spare head. Those are not from the pins; I would say they are from casting flash getting ground down at the factory.

I wish that the noise was caused by that. Too bad that is the intake cam pictured while the noise is from the exhaust. No modded rockers were on the exhaust.

[mwrenn]

Have you seen those titanium keepers that FWD has? They are supposed to make you cams and belt last longer by relieving some of the spring pressure on the rockers. I'llfind the listing and post the link.

[mwrenn]

Well, they are listed under the tIII section at the bottom. Aparrently they raise the installed height of the valve stem .070" and reduce pressur on the valve train while maintaining the spring pressure and lift.