Ive searched this in LT1 but nobody ever gives a strait answer, so im turning here. For a light rotating engine thats gonna turn 6800ish which is better non self aligning or self aligning? I dont want to sacrifice drivability for horsepower, but i want the best.

 

7/16th studs to reduce flex, NSA pro-mags, LT1 Guideplates..

anyone else?

 

7/16" studs.

As for NSA vs SA, I dunno. The NSA's are a bit lighter (since the guideplates do the work), but I've never seen numbers to quantify how much hp you may gain. If anything I'd just go with the NSA's to ensure more stability. If you wanted real overkill, you could use SA rockers with guideplates.

 

Well yeah the GM guideplates are nice, but I would look at the Hi Tech Stainless rockers if you really want to reduce flex!

7/16 studs are a big help though.

Bret

 

Prolly not a good idea! You will be fighting against yourself there

Bret

 

Good way to make valvetrain go BOOM!

 

noted.

Anyone have some specs on the benfits of NSA? everyone says they're better, but I've never seen any real numbers.

 

I don't know a whole heck of a lot on the subject concerning SA versus NSA rockers. I do feel that the NSA's are much more stable due to the fact that as long as the guideplate are there, the roller will be centered over the valve tip.

With SA rockers, if you have a rocker that loosens up slightly (pretty common occurance if you don't install them properly), it can pivot slightly and ride up the little guides built in next to the roller tip and damage/destroy the rocker in addition to damaging the valve tip and maybe even damaging the pushrod or spring retainer. I've seen this happen on one of a set of 1.6:1 LT4/Crane/GMPP roller rockers that came with a persons hotcam kit.

I would NEVER run a SA roller rocker with a solid roller cam where lash is very important and relatively frequent adjustments need to be made to maintain correct lash settings. It doesn't take much extra clearance from the lash being out of spec and the rocker hitting the valve just right for the rocker to become off-center on the valve tip.

As asked above, I don't know what kind of "numbers" you could state to prove they are better. It isn't something that you are going to pick up power from, just something that is going to make the valvetrain more stable due to the design and safer/more reliable especially at high rpm. If you haven't seen/compared the two designs on a head in person, if you were to take a look at them, it is pretty easy to see the inherent design limitations of the SA models, though they can work OK for a mild to moderate setup that is installed properly and has a fairly reasonable rpm limit.

I honestly don't see the benefit of running a SA rocker if you know how to unscrew studs and install guideplates properly with proper clearance. Just my .02

 

When you buy the guide plates..... Be sure and get the stock LT1 guide plates as you can get ones for small block chevy but they will be off.

How do I know? Agostino put the wrong ones on a set of heads and it ruined three of my roller rockers. Such cleaver folks!