I have an iron headed LT1, with pressed in rocker studs. I had a lifter pump up and explode, which forced the rocker nut off it's stud, and very slightly stripped the stud.

I just replaced the lifters, along with a new cam, and pushrods. The motor runs fine, BUT....

That one rocker arm comes loose after a minute of the engine running, and pops itself up about 1/4". It still opens the valve, but not all the way, and it makes a clattering noise.

How can I remedy this? Can I somehow pull out that one bad stud and replace it with a new screw in stud? Can I re-dye the stud?

You can pull the stud and replace it, been done.

You could try running a die over it to clean up the threads but I would not feel good about the longevity of such a repair.

I think Mr. Gasket offers studs that have sort of a ball set to them so they can be used in place of pressed studs without machining the bosses flat, just have to tap the hole. If it is an exhaust stud you might be able to get away with that on engine being careful about shavings, the intake studs are into the intake ports though so you do not want to tap them on engine as you would put debris into the ports.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

I have a set of ARP screw in studs right now, for a standard aluminum head.

I just pulled the old pressed stud out with a nut and a stack of washers. I tried swapping out my 1.6RR for a stock stamped rocker, hoping that it would hold since its nut seats way farther down on the stud. no such luck. THe nut still slid upward, and the lack of tension on my pushrod caused it bind and bend. Dammit.

I'm about to go buy a tap, and a new pushrod, and see if I can make it work.

There is a special tool set used to remove the bad stud, and to put the new replacement in at the same depth - it's very common to have several that need replacement when rebuilding a set. Call around and see if there's a machine shop that can do it for you in chassis.

I got it fixed... sorta.

I used a nut and a stack of washers to pull the old stud out of the head. The stud hole did in fact go all the way through to the intake port.

I bought a tap to tap out the stud bore. I put a blob of RTV in the bottom of the stud hole to prevent metal shavings from falling into the intake port. THen, I got to tapping. Every couple of turns, I would pull out the tap, and remove all the steel shavings with a pen magnet.

I screwed in the new ARP stud, to find that it's hex base was WAY to big for my 1.6RR's. I used a bench grinder to machine away most of the hex base, so the rocker could smoothly traverse on it with no interference. I left just enough of the base so a socket could turn the stud into place.

The new stud sits considerably higher than the old one, so When I reinstalled the rocker, the poly lock wouldn't work. THe nut for the RR goes almost all the way down over the stud. I figure thats OK if I just use some loctite on the nut.

When my original problem started, the new hardened pushrod came loose and binded under the head, bending it. When I re-assembled the new rig, I used a clevite stock replacement pushrod.

Between the heavy valvesprings, high lift cam, and the 1.6RR, that poor pushrod bent within 10 seconds. So did 2 more that I installed, thinking I had improperly adjusted the rocker.

I'm going to order a new set of comp hardened pushrods, so if another one bends, I'll have 15 replacements after I fix the broken one I have now.

I would check for bent valves. Also, do you think the press-in studs will hold out under the pressure of the new springs and high lift camshaft?

I think the pressed in parts will be fine. It's just a hotcam and some lunati springs.

Why do I want to check for bent valves? WHat leads you to believe I bent one?

To bend a hardened pushrod, the piston and valve are making some serious contact.

I thought that would be true with chromoly p-rods, but not hardened pushrods. I figured the pushrod was free to bang around loosly when the rocker came dislodged, and got wedged crooked underneath the head, causing it to bend.

I'll look into it though.

The one trapped on the head should be allright. But, what about the other two?

"Between the heavy valvesprings, high lift cam, and the 1.6RR, that poor pushrod bent within 10 seconds. So did 2 more that I installed, thinking I had improperly adjusted the rocker."

Those were all at the same place. the #2 intake valve.

The rocker initially popped up, letting a loose hardened pushrod bang around and get wedged beneath the lip of the cyl head and get bent.

I installed the new rocker stud, and since I was out of hardened pushrods, I used a stock clevite piece I had laying around. It bent. I put in another one. it bent. I gave up.

I just ordered a new set of hardened pushrods. I'm going to put in a hardened pushrod, and see if the motor runs ok. If it doesn't, I'm going to buy a 2009 turbo cobalt SS, and tear the motor out of this camaro and rebuild it.

Are you saying that you keep on bending pushrods?

yup.

Well, you win my friend.

I put everything back together, and I bent two more hardened pushrods. Something is really wrong with the #2 intake valve. I'm going to pull the head this weekend and see WTF is going on in there.

sounds like you need to align your cam properly, you could be off 1 tooth. Or you dont know how to adjust zero lash properly. Weird how its only effecting the 1 cylinder.