MRE roller rockers on Trick Flow heads
Here is a photo of the banana grooves I cut in the MRE rocker shafts using an angle grinder with thin cut-off wheel (about 1/8 inch wide). Finished the shaft cuts with 600 grit emery cloth. To help valve train oiling for the .550 valve lift I tripled the amount of oil flowing to the rocker shafts by making the oil holes in the cam journal into circumferential slots where the slot lengths are 3 times the diameter of the original oil holes in the cam journal. Not to say this is the way to do it, this is just what I decided on.
A tool to pre-oil the engine/rocker shafts I made using an old 318 oil pump drive, ground off all the teeth, and a 6 inch long bolt with the bolt head ground into a flat blade like a screw driver to fit the distributor drive slot in the oil pump drive.
To pre-oil the rocker shafts, I started with the crankshaft at #1 cylinder TDC, then rotate the crank CW stopping at 90 deg ATDC. At this crank position oil will be sent to the LH drivers side rocker shaft. Run the drill CCW for a big block. At about 500 rpm drill speed, had to run the drill a good minute until oil was running out at a good flow from the entire length of the rocker shaft. Now rotate the crank CW stopping at 360 deg after TDC. Run the drill again to oil the RH rocker shaft. Then turn the crank another 360 degrees to put it back at #1 cylinder TDC.
Concerning the rocker shaft position for optimum rocker geometry, I realize what I showed the last post was close but not optimum. I’m not the expert like some of you guys, but I don’t know why Trick Flow kept the cast in rocker shaft stands in their BBM heads. Just like OEM heads, tapered shims and custom spacers are needed to reset the rocker shaft height. I used to work for a guy that ran an A/stock Ford 427, the rocker shafts were supported in removable shaft blocks that could be flat shimmed or change the height of the square shaft block easily to anything you wanted. It was really easy to “tune” the rocker geometry. Same goes for the Mopar small block Magnum heads with the stud type rockers…again it is real easy to improve the rocker geometry.
Here is a photo of the banana grooves I cut in the MRE rocker shafts using an angle grinder with thin cut-off wheel (about 1/8 inch wide). Finished the shaft cuts with 600 grit emery cloth. To help valve train oiling for the .550 valve lift I tripled the amount of oil flowing to the rocker shafts by making the oil holes in the cam journal into circumferential slots where the slot lengths are 3 times the diameter of the original oil holes in the cam journal. Not to say this is the way to do it, this is just what I decided on.
A tool to pre-oil the engine/rocker shafts I made using an old 318 oil pump drive, ground off all the teeth, and a 6 inch long bolt with the bolt head ground into a flat blade like a screw driver to fit the distributor drive slot in the oil pump drive.
To pre-oil the rocker shafts, I started with the crankshaft at #1 cylinder TDC, then rotate the crank CW stopping at 90 deg ATDC. At this crank position oil will be sent to the LH drivers side rocker shaft. Run the drill CCW for a big block. At about 500 rpm drill speed, had to run the drill a good minute until oil was running out at a good flow from the entire length of the rocker shaft. Now rotate the crank CW stopping at 360 deg after TDC. Run the drill again to oil the RH rocker shaft. Then turn the crank another 360 degrees to put it back at #1 cylinder TDC.
Concerning the rocker shaft position for optimum rocker geometry, I realize what I showed the last post was close but not optimum. I’m not the expert like some of you guys, but I don’t know why Trick Flow kept the cast in rocker shaft stands in their BBM heads. Just like OEM heads, tapered shims and custom spacers are needed to reset the rocker shaft height. I used to work for a guy that ran an A/stock Ford 427, the rocker shafts were supported in removable shaft blocks that could be flat shimmed or change the height of the square shaft block easily to anything you wanted. It was really easy to “tune” the rocker geometry. Same goes for the Mopar small block Magnum heads with the stud type rockers…again it is real easy to improve the rocker geometry.
