Car has stock cam and rockers. What kind of gains will I see from upgrading to 1.6 rockers? Which one's should I go with? Car is a daily driver. Will I need to switch springs as well?? Car can't be down longer than a day, so I need something that installs with in that timeframe. Any suggestions/part numbers/best place to purchase is appreciated. Also, I want non-self aligning, so I would need guideplates and pushrods as well.

Thanks,
James

 

Most guys have their favorite rockers, so don't expect universal agreement.

I love Scorpions from Flatlander Racing and run two set, one on my son's 96 Vette and another set on my 96 Vette. My 1.7s cost $222 and I went with NON-SELF ALIGNING ROCKERS. Guide plates and TFS hardened Pushrods came from Summit Racing. Check those two sites for part numbers and prices on the plates and pushrods.

Even with swapping springs, all can be done in less than one day if you're handy with tools.

With upgraded valve springs you should see mid-teen power increases at the mid-range on up.

Jake

West Point ROCKS! Nation's TOP COLLEGE per Forbes Magazine!! Graduation Day Parade 20 May 2010!!!

 

Gains?? 5~15 HP depending on mods.....

 

I agree with jakejr about scorpions rockers. Except mine are summit brand which is made by scorpion. I have 1.6's and I have had them for about a year and have had no problems what so ever. I have another thread on here talking about the same thing. If interested check it out for the rest of my recommendations.

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=725189

 

I guess the choice of rockers is just personal preference. If you go with a quality design that uses quality parts you should be just fine. It appears to me that the off-shore brands tend to go cheap on the trunion bearing....which is probably the worst place to do so as a worn bearing or bushing there could really play havoc with valve opening and closing.

 

Self aligning Comp Pro Mags in 1.6 ratio. Simple and effective.
no need for GPs and thier headaches and new PRs.

 

i have to agree, for your application you will not need NSA - and i have pro mags and am happy with them

 

Well down the road I plan on doing LE2 heads, supercharger and a cc305. I'm just trying to figure out if its worth doing now or just wait until I get the heads done.

 

IMO, depending on how much cam you run and how much spring pressure you have, the Self Aligning set up will work in MOST cases. And even in the set up you are talking about, the SAs will work.

Cam/RPM/spring pressures determine the need for NSA/GPs RRs.

 

If you visit a LOT of Forums, like I do, you'll find that lots of guys are tearing up their valve trains using SA rocker arms. That's one of the advantages of not putting all your eggs in one basket - depending on only one or two sites for your information rather than many.

They're jumping off the spring and ending up wedged along side the valve spring; causing spiders to get torn up; breaking at the roller tip and, in another case, at the trunnion - and I'm talking PRO MAGS here not El Cheapos.

All sorts of excuses are trotted out in an attempt to place blame elsewhere, rather than on the SA rocker's way of doing business. "Oh, he set the preload wrong". "Oh, he used the wrong length pushrod." "Oh he had too much spring". All sorts of attempts. Common denominator to the failures is they were SA. .

Even CompCams says not to use self aligning rocker arms in performance applications.

How much evidence do you need? Do you need for your valve train to tear up before you say, yea, I should have listened and gone NSA?

I'm not going to fight with anyone over this, so do what you want, but my advice is to stay clear of them if for no other reason than peace of mind.

Jake

West Point ROCKS! Nation's TOP COLLEGE per Forbes Magazine!! Graduation Day Parade 20 May 2010!!!

 

Ok, so what length pushrods do I need for 1.6? Also, for the 3/8" rockers, I'm assuming I need to purchase conversion studs? SA rockers are out of the question, I don't trust them. I'm thinking this is going to cost $500- springs/RR/pushrods/Guide plates/studs... sound about right? If its only going to give ~10whp, i'll put it on the backburner.

 

get
arp 7/16 studs
7/16 pro mag rockers
HARDENED guides (i used trick flow)
stock push rods are 7.2 but you should at least check a contact pattern after install to be sure. make sure you use HARDENED pushrods ( again i used trick flow for this as well)

high rpms are generally when Sa rockers will fail

 

Interesting. I pushed the stock cam set up to 6500 on the top end several times and used Self Aligning RRs without issues.

It seemed to work for me....seveal 113+MPH passes with bolt ons.....

 

i hear of alot of people at high rpms breaking the tabs that hold the rockers in place from all the stress - allowing the rocker to rotate off the valve

but this never happened to me, so take it for what its worth - heresay

 

Going back to what I said before: depending on the set up, NSA might be better. But for a stock cam'd motor or even a small cam motor the SA would be fine.

But to each his own.