Roller rocker arms in a street engine

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barracu67

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I know my small blocks well but have a big block question. A customer is having us do some things to his 69 Super Bee with a 440. He wants to use 1.6 roller rockers. What are there longevity on the street? Is there a prefrence between aluminum or stainless steel? He is running a hydraulic cam. Does any one make push rods for this application or do they have to be custom made? I appreciate anyone's guidance and experience.
 
I use some used Crane golds on mine and had Smith Bros make me some push rods.
 
Hughes or Harland Sharp are the way to go for the rockers. Smith Brothers for the pushrods. Hughes sent me there pushrod length checker tool and they made my pushrods for me.
 
Some have had problems with stainless and others have had problems with aluminum. Some have had no problems with either.

If you use the stainless steel, make sure you use the bronze bushed ones. I use PRW stainless rockers on the street but you really have to disassemble them and clean them extensively prior to use.

For aluminum rockers I would use Harland Sharp or T&D, expensive, but so is a ruined engine. Comp Cams has a line of pushrods you could use. The PRW stainless rockers use the ball & ball pushrod as do the T&D rockers. Many companies have large selections of premade ball and ball pushrods. If you choose to have pushrods custom made, I use Smith Brothers.
 
the level of preformance should dictate the price of the rocker arms which you didn't mention. you just can't stick 1.6 rockers in the motor and expect the valves to clear the pistons. you had better check v to p clearance.
 
Running crane golds ,8 years over 30,000 miles still going.451 "B" block Comp cams prototype "Thumper" cam. the rockers are 1.5
 
Although it's not the same engine, the principle is the same: Ford used Crane Energizer pedestal mount aluminum roller rockers on the 93-95 Cobra engines from the factory...I bought the heads from one with 124k miles, and I used them on a blown 5.0 for about 5 years and 20k miles with absolutely no issues. That being said, I'll echo what a few others point out, make sure you're buying quality components and using the correct mating parts. HS and T&D make excellent grade engine components, and if the RPM level, and spring pressures dictate the use of them, I'd use them in a heartbeat and not look back.

Just my .02...
 
Thanks for everyone's input & info. I always thought of roller rocker's as race only pieces, like aluminum rods, and was worried they would not last thousands of miles in a street engine.
 
Hughes rockers are a very nice rocker arm as well. I have to sets on both my small blocks.
 
Be prepared to grind the heads for pushrod clearance if you use 1.6 rockers.
 
Baby ain't a roller rocker that I know of. I knew someone would say something.
 
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