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Roller rockers, anygood?? 73MGB

Last post 03-03-2010, 9:39 AM by mgnutcase. 3 replies.
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  •  03-02-2010, 1:58 PM 22953

    Roller rockers, anygood?? 73MGB

    Hi folks,  I'm rebuilding an old engine/transmission pretty much along the lines recommended by MotorBill. Blocks and crank  are done and assembled. Im going to buy alloyhead and here's the question. The old rockers were pretty shot, both bushings and tip wear, the ones on the car are not much better, should I think about going for  a roller-rocker kit instead of lashing out on rebushing and reprofiling the old stuff??My aim is to have an easy street car with not too much potential for regular high maintenance. What are the UPS and DOWNS [oops] of using roller-rockers?      cheers - - - steve.   


    To a man equipped with only a hammer, most problems look like nails
  •  03-02-2010, 2:49 PM 22956 in reply to 22953

    Re: Roller rockers, anygood??

    In the UK there many suppliers/manufacturers of roller rockers for the 4 cyl TR engine.

    What you need to specify is the ratio you want - many of the upgrade ones are a higher ratio than the orig rockers. 

    The set supplied by Tony Dean at Kingston Sports Cars are for my money head and shoulders over the rest of the market. They are available in standard and higher ratio.

    tony@kingstonsportscars.co.uk   Tel +44 (0)1359269777 his web site is not working http://www.kingstonsportscars.com/index.php

    If you do get in touch with him tell him Peter Wigglesworth sent you in his direction.

  •  03-02-2010, 4:22 PM 22957 in reply to 22953

    Re: Roller rockers, anygood??

    Generally speaking, roller rockers are only used where high performance is desired, and the use of a higher lift camshaft can cause quite a bit of fitting and running trouble unless it's done just so. For the money, I think I would rather have a slightly higher performance cam and leave the stock (rebuilt of course) rockers in. Rebushing them is something any competent machinist is capable of doing fairly inexpensively. Bring him your new rocker shaft, (the tuftrided one I hope) so he can hone them to exact size. As far as the contact tip goes, you will indeed need to sand down the scarred tip while making sure that you are staying square to the axis of the shaft. A belt sander, with a means of keeping the tip parallel to the shaft axis, works great. Be careful, the material, will come off rather quickly. Once this is done, find a buffing wheel and some compound for steel. There are two grades you should use in progression. The first is called the "cutting compound". It gets down to the smooth surface right away. Be careful you don't go too far; just untill it has "touched out" the entire surface. Now charge the wheel with polishing compound (buffing, not paint polishing) and have at it. You should be able to get a Chrome-like finish. We do this so that the rocker tip slides more easily across the valve stem top surface and will last tons longer than the original. The factory never bothered with this, and if you look at the tip on a new factory part you'll see that indeed the machining process used left lines across the tip, which is the opposite of what you'd like. Let me know if there are questions.

    Motorbill


    Motorbill
    From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon
  •  03-03-2010, 9:39 AM 22969 in reply to 22957

    Re: Roller rockers, anygood??

    Thanks guys. Motorbills assesment and guidance is reassuring yet once again. Sounds like refurbishing rockers is an art-form rather than dirty engineering! I might even try my hand at installing and honing the bushs as this is all being done on a spare engine.

    Cheers    - - -   steve


    To a man equipped with only a hammer, most problems look like nails