I am in the process of putting my car back together after a cam swap, and I'm a little worried about my rockers, a few of them are pretty dinged up on the edges for some reason. I have no idea what kind they are, all i know is they are nsa 1.6 rr. So, being I'm there I'm searching for new rocker arms. I am looking at either the harland sharp nsa 1.6 or the scorpion performance nsa 1.6. I'm still confused why the rocker arms look that way, wonder if the previous owner didn't have the lash set correctly? What do you guys think about harland shop and scorpion?
Thanks

 

Do the pushrods guide plates hold the NSA rockers firmly over the center of the valve stems?

 

OP

a picture of your RR would help us "see" where the "dinged up" part is.

are you running stock LT1 valve covers, non trimmed baffles??

 

They are stock untrimmed valve covers, I don't know if these are even guide plates or not, but the pushrods are not held firmly, I'm wondering if they are the plates gm uses for installation, I will get a picture of those later. But here is the rocker. Only 3 other rockers look this way, this is from cylinder 1.

 

The Crane Gold "narrow Body" RR are the only ones I know of that do not require VC baffle trimming. I don't know by your pic what brand RR you have

you say you don't know if you have guide plates.....well you have NSA (non self aligning) RR so you need them. Otherwise the RR will walk around and can come right off the valve stem tip.

take a pic of your cylinder head with the VC off. we should be able to see if you have guide plates. They are not a stock item as these engines came with SA rockers

are there signs of scraping on your VC baffles and or your valve spring retainers

and the metal debris from the RR is in your engine...not good

 

This is the only pic I have at the moment. I will try to get another one without rockers tonight, but you can see the plates I am talking about

 

I see guide plates....your "geometry" in terms of push rod length and the alignment of the guide plates may not be right.

Hard to see in the pic but is there signs of contact on the edges of the retainers?

I use the ISKY adjustable guide plates vs one piece. I found they allowed me to align the RR dead nuts L to R placement on the valve stem tip.

your sig says CC 918 "dual" valve springs. 918 are beehive single springs. Your pic does not look like bee hive springs

the damage to RR suggests it is contacting the retainer. You need to confirm PR length and geometry

 

Sorry the beehive springs were not installed yet at the time of picture, the pushrods are the stock 7.2. And all of the valve retainers are almost perfect, no scuffs, dings, nothing at all. Wonder what the odds are of the previous owner putting these on off of another car that had issues ( you sure wouldn't think so) but I just don't know. The geometry part has me a little confused as far as setting up guide plates and such. Mine didn't look adjustable

 

well maybe the PO did put in RR that had the damage. If you can't see any signs opposite of where there is contact evidence on the RR to the corresponding part of the valve train than that may be the case

what can happen when PR are to short is the body of RR can hit the retainer. Your 7.200" ones on a stock motor heads & cam without any block or head decking should be spot on

Usually the one piece guide plates have slotted holes allowing some L-R positioning. Obviously a one piece won't allow you to set each valve individually so you want the roller part of the RR as dead nuts centered L-R on the valve tip then tighten the RR studs. Just look at how they align with the valve tip. The LT1 heads are different than SBC gen 1&2 so regular GM guide plates don't line up exactly on some which is why I and others use the ISKYS. If all your rollers are sitting center L-R on the valve tip you are good. If some are not and actually partially off the tip...you want to consider adjustable. I believe there is also another type (COMP??) that are individual to each valve

the 918 springs have a smaller retainer and should give you more clearance than the standard size spring/retainer shown in the pic

while a scrape or something on the side body of the RR would not be a big issue the one you show is gauged into the roller shaft itself so I would be hesitant in using at least that one. You are seeing it 1st hand so make the judgment if the RR is compromised structurally

 

i've already decided to toss these rockers, and being I don't know anything about them ( no markings or anything) I've gotta get a whole new set instead of just replacing the bad ones, which I am ok with, that way at least i know what i've got. I'm running the cc306, with 918 beehives with comp hardened 7.200 pushrods. What do you recommend for RR's? I had my eye on Harland Sharp and Scorpion. But I don't want to have to mess with valve covers either. Crane Gold narrow body the way to go??

 

Crane Gold Narrow Body are the only RR (3/8") that do not require any baffle trimming that I am aware of.

With that said the baffle trimming is very simple to do, which I have done, and I use Comp Pro Mag (7/16"). Now Comp "Ultra" Pro Mag is the RR that Comp replaced the regular Pro Mags with. Both are steel RR vs Aluminum. I do have the Crane's on a 355 Carb LT1 in my 70 Nova, good RR.

 

Ditto.... my Comp Pro-Magnums have been fine for 16 years. Handling a solid roller cam, 7,200+ RPM redline, 0.590" lift on intake and exhaust. The Ultra Pro-Magnum replacements look even better. And totally agree, the valve cover tweaks are a minor inconvenience at most.

 

courtesy of Golen Engine Service

cut on the intake manifold side of VC

 

Here is cylinder 1, where the damaged rocker came from.

 

I wonder what rockers these are then, because my valve covers are not trimmed at all.