Indy RHS head failure

B3RE said
With that lift spec, the sweep should be less than .032" when properly set up. add in about .015" for a roller footprint, and the width of the stripe should measure less than .050". It looks wider than that to me.

Where/how do you come up with that number? Just curious. Is it a percentage or is that number some sort of standard? If it is too wide it's not by much. I initially thought it was too narrow. There can't be that much wasted motion here if any.

B3RE said
It is centered nicely, but that doesn't mean good geometry. It just means the rocker fulcrum length is long enough (actually too long) to put the roller on the center of the valve with the fulcrum being to low.When the fulcrum (shaft) height is correct, the roller on that rocker would be too far toward the exhaust side of the head because of the extra length. That means the shaft would need to be offset more than would be necessary if the rocker was the right length to begin with.

That is true because when I did shim it, the pattern moved toward the exhaust side. I used an adjustable pushrod and dial indicator set up on the valve retainer to check for max. lift with the valve all the way open. I know got it right, I spent a lot of time with it.

So what to do? To get it perfect you'll be doing custom machining on every single part. If I wanted to get into that level of perfection, no way I would be running RHS heads, I'd be looking into much higher cost aluminum stuff. Sure, I could machine the rocker stands and make some offset blocks but that's where I draw the line, these are 'budget' heads and doing that sort of stuff throws budget out the window. I think it will run pretty good and won't be leaving much on the table with what I have.

Sorry to the OP for the hijack. Not sure if this pertains to your broken parts but I guess the question is whether or not you checked this stuff before hand and if the parts selected work together. I suppose a real bad geometry issue could cause what you have. I read the title thinking that head itself was the issue but that's not the case here.

These are the springs, valve locks and retainers I have. Not sure what they are, they came with the heads. Probably not the best pic, sorry.