Aluminum cylinder heads

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roccodart440 said:
Always breaking adjusters. I finally bought a new set of adjusters and it was ok but it made me seriously questions their quality.
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A couple of my friends along with myself have also had problems with Crane adjusters breaking. Never had any trouble with the rockers , just the adjusters. The first thing I would do if I was to buy another set of Cranes is to call Smith Brothers up and order a set of their adjusters. I would think that Crane would have already addressed this issue.
 
roccodart440 said:
Always breaking adjusters. I finally bought a new set of adjusters and it was ok but it made me seriously questions their quality.
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How old and when was the last set that broke, been purchased
 
Thanks. I remember reading about this. I did t think it was still a recent or current issue. There were a bunch of guys braking the adjusters back then. I haven’t heard of this issue again until now. And it is really not an issue of it is a 10 year old mention of breaking parts back then. More like history. Which is good. I think the issue has been resolved.
 
rumblefish360 said:
Thanks. I remember reading about this. I did t think it was still a recent or current issue. There were a bunch of guys braking the adjusters back then. I haven’t heard of this issue again until now. And it is really not an issue of it is a 10 year old mention of breaking parts back then. More like history. Which is good. I think the issue has been resolved.
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Let's hope...but..I don't give companies whose parts failed on me a 2nd shot.
 
I’d rather not myself. No need to spend twice on junk breaking on your stuff causing more uncalled fore grief!
 
roccodart440 said:
Let's hope...but..I don't give companies whose parts failed on me a 2nd shot.
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For the money I don't think you can beat Mancini's rocker arm sets. They are manufactured by Harland Sharp for Mancini. They are not the needle bearing type ( which I've always felt uneasy about a needle bearing coming apart so I've never used them) but are the bushed type. They come packaged with billet hold downs for a little over 500.00. I've used them along with a few friends also and never had a problem with the rockers or adjusters. I posted a pic and some info on them earlier in this thread.
 
From what I remember..the issue with the Crane adjusters was they started making the ball and the body longer, so the old setup method of 3 or 4 or whatever exposed threads underneath, was creating a bad angle and was side-loading them too much.


Here's a pic Lewtot posted a few years back over on B-bods. The second one down is the older Crane adjuster, the newer styles are the last two...you can see the differences.On the newer ones, set them to zero-1 thread out of the hole for MOST applications or else,...snap! I emphasized 'most' because it depends on the rocker design. The key is not having the ball out too far, but not in so far as to let the pushrod cup contact the rocker..but you guys knew that:)
100_0375.jpg
 
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WARLOCKII said:
We want to go with a set of aluminum heads on our 72 Swinger w/383 and auto trans. Right now with the iron heads and Schumacher headers, the plugs are a pain to change and the plug wires are very close to the headers. We're looking at Edelbrock E-Street 75cc angle plug heads. Is anyone else using this combination? What are the pros/cons?
Thanks
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mygasser said:
that's an expensive 30hp though comparing the cost of both heads and if it's not a race car it won't matter as much.
neil.
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There are deals out there.... I have a pair of TF240s that didn't break the bank - I found a source for factory blems and then bought valves, springs, retainers, etc -- dropped them off at my machinish - Ended up costing ~$1,400 for everything -- not cheap but definitely not as much as the $2,400 a out of the box pair would have cost and only a bit more than the E-streets --- having worked with both Edelbrock and the TF heads I have to say I am more confident with the TF heads over the Edelbrocks
 
fishmens67 said:
PRW stainless
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A friend of mine recently purchased a set of these to put on his E-Street Edelbrocks. We had to grind the bottom part of the rocker arm because it hit the retainer before the roller tip did. Had to do a lot of work on them to get them to work. I'll see if I can round up some pics of the problems we encountered with them.
 
SuperStock426 said:
A friend of mine recently purchased a set of these to put on his E-Street Edelbrocks. We had to grind the bottom part of the rocker arm because it hit the retainer before the roller tip did. Had to do a lot of work on them to get them to work. I'll see if I can round up some pics of the problems we encountered with them.
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I had to do that with my first set.
Geometry correction solves that problem
Most rocker arm failures are do to improper geometry.
 
fishmens67 said:
I had to do that with my first set.
Geometry correction solves that problem
Most rocker arm failures are do to improper geometry.
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Pushrods were measured precisely. The problem was in the rocker arm itself. I've installed about every rocker arm assembly made and never had the problems like with these. Install height was checked. Everything was checked but still the rocker arm hit the retainer.
 
SuperStock426 said:
Pushrods were measured precisely. The problem was in the rocker arm itself. I've installed about every rocker arm assembly made and never had the problems like with these. Install height was checked. Everything was checked but still the rocker arm hit the retainer.
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Can you elaborate on precisely measuring the pushrod for geometry purposes.
 
B3RE said:
Can you elaborate on precisely measuring the pushrod for geometry purposes.
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An adjustable pushrod tool and calipers.Rockers were spaced and centered on the tip of the pushrods. When everything was adjusted had two threads showing at the bottom of the adjuster protruding from the bottom of the rockers. Order my pushrods through Smith Brothers. Measured install height as well..Used Isky springs.
 
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SuperStock426 said:
An adjustable pushrod tool and calipers.Rockers were spaced and centered on the tip of the pushrods. When everything was adjusted had two threads showing at the bottom of the adjuster protruding from the bottom of the rockers. Order my pushrods through Smith Brothers. Measured install height as well..Used Isky springs.
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Pushrod length does not affect geometry on shaft mounted rockers.
 
yellow rose said:
Pushrod length does not affect geometry on shaft mounted rockers.
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I don't remember saying anything about measuring the pushrods for geometry. I was stating how I measured the pushrods and what I used along with how I set up the rockers and checked the valve spring set up.
 
fishmens67 said:
I had to do that with my first set.
Geometry correction solves that problem
Most rocker arm failures are do to improper geometry.
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SuperStock426 said:
Pushrods were measured precisely. The problem was in the rocker arm itself. I've installed about every rocker arm assembly made and never had the problems like with these. Install height was checked. Everything was checked but still the rocker arm hit the retainer.
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This is your answer regarding geometry being mentioned.

B3RE said:
Can you elaborate on precisely measuring the pushrod for geometry purposes.
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SuperStock426 said:
An adjustable pushrod tool and calipers.Rockers were spaced and centered on the tip of the pushrods. When everything was adjusted had two threads showing at the bottom of the adjuster protruding from the bottom of the rockers. Order my pushrods through Smith Brothers. Measured install height as well..Used Isky springs.
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This is how you answered my question about pushrod length concerning geometry.

yellow rose said:
Pushrod length does not affect geometry on shaft mounted rockers.
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SuperStock426 said:
I don't remember saying anything about measuring the pushrods for geometry. I was stating how I measured the pushrods and what I used along with how I set up the rockers and checked the valve spring set up.
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Yep, you did.
 
B3RE said:
This is your answer regarding geometry being mentioned.




This is how you answered my question about pushrod length concerning geometry.




Yep, you did.
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I was explaining how I set up the valvetrain.. See where I mentioned spacing the rockers and centering them on the the tip of the valve?. And yes I mentioned how I measured for proper pushrod length.. But all this aside, what's your point?
 
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SuperStock426 said:
I was explaining how I set up the valvetrain.. See where I mentioned spacing the rockers and centering them on the the tip of the valve?. And yes I mentioned how I measured for proper pushrod length.. But all this aside, what's your point?
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My point is, I haven't ground on a rocker arm in at least 15 years, including the PRW stainless rockers. I have used dozens of sets on in-house builds, and sold many more sets to customers without issue, including on E-street heads. Why? Because, as was mentioned previously, correcting geometry eliminates symptoms of poor geometry, such as fitment interference, or excessive sweep. Just because the rocker does or doesn't clear the parts around it is not an indicator of whether the rocker is good or bad.

Frankly, the Harland Sharp and Mancini rockers you are promoting are some of the worst when it comes to its design engineering. I've made corrections to many sets for customers, but haven't used them, or any copies of them, for quite a few years. There are better choices for the money.

In summary, you say there was something wrong with the rockers, and I say there was something wrong with the stand location in the cylinder head, regardless of the roller rocker arms used. Imagine having the benefits mentioned in the tech articles, if the shafts had been relocated.
 
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