Gray Ghost GS

Looks like its my turn to experience a Yella Terra rocker failure; very similar to the type of failure with their 2nd generation (silver) design that occurred with other members on this forum. As we know, the value of a company comes down to its customer service and how well they stand behind their products.

I experienced this failure while in the company parking lot getting ready to come home so I was able to shut it down and fortunately no other damage caused by the rocker failure as I had my car on a flat bed recovery vehicle to the garage that services my Corvette.

I contacted Jim Petrakis (jim@yellaterra.com.au) in Australia who put me in touch with Roger Vinci, the Yella Terra Product Development Manager in the USA (roger@yellaterra.com and 407-478-8388) to complete the warranty paper with photos and proof of purchase to process the warranty claim for replacement rockers.

Here are the photos:





I figured I would provide a time line to track how well Yella Terra management and customer service respond to a customer following their procedures in support of a product failure based on their 1st generation design:

20 November: Contacted Jim Petrakis, informing him of the product failure and request for support and new set of rockers (2nd generation).

20 November: Excellent and timely response from Jim Petrakis

From: Jim Petrakis [mailto:jim@yellaterra.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2013 11:06 PM
To: roger@yellaterra.com
Subject: FW: YT Ultralite Roller Rocker Failure: Request new replacement set
Importance: High

Could you manage this guy . Send him the form and tell him it shouldn’t be a problem and we’ll ship him a pair (once we have the paperwork)

20 November: Email from Roger Vinci

From: Roger Vinci [mailto:roger@yellaterra.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 8:40 AM
To: Higgins, Michael C.
Subject: RE: YT Ultralite Roller Rocker Failure: Request new replacement set

Hi Mike,

I attached a warranty form for you to fill out and return. When I receive it I will forward it to our warranty department and set the wheels in motion to get you a pair of rockers.

Regards,

Roger Vinci
Product Development Mgr.
roger@yellaterra.com
www.yellaterra.com
407-478-8388

20 November: Yup, still within the first 24 hours. I email them both a copy of my proof of purchase, photos of the damaged rockers and the completed Yella Terra Warranty Claim Form to process the request for new rockers.

21 November: Roger Vinci confirms receipt of my email and attachments, and forwards the packet to Yella Terra Warranty Service in Australia for final processing to ship the new roller rockers to my home address.

From: Roger Vinci [mailto:roger@yellaterra.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 9:21 AM
To: Higgins, Michael C.
Subject: RE: YT Ultralite Roller Rocker Failure: Request new replacement set

Thank you for the swift return of the warranty form. I have forwarded it to our warranty department in Australia. You should hear from them very soon.

2 weeks later, no rockers or updates from Jim or Roger. I email them both for an update and receive a response from Roger:

From: Roger Vinci [roger@yellaterra.com]
Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 7:50 AM
To: Higgins, Michael C.
Subject: RE: YT Ultralite Roller Rocker Failure: Request new replacement set

Mike,

I am only authorized to enlist information for warranty claims. All considerations are made at Yella Terra in Australia. It is a very busy time of year as we are preparing for PRI next week. I forwarded this and all other information to YT. Hopefully they will follow up with you as soon as possible.

Regards,

Roger Vinci
Product Development Mgr.
roger@yellaterra.com
www.yellaterra.com
407-478-8388

I have faith that Yella Terra will successfully honor their warranty and provide a high level of customer service and warranty support within the next couple of weeks..... I'll keep you posted. My other concern is that both Jim and Roger talk about sending me a new "pair of rockers" vs. a new "set of rockers" based on the new 3rd generation design. I don't want a new pair of rockers that are 1st or 2nd generation (prior to 2010).... What good is that???

RonSSNova

A pair. Good deal! After a month goes by, and you finally are back on the road, how long until another breaks?
I have 7 pairs in stock now. I didn't have a receipt for mine so I just bought a new set, latest design.
Mine broke exactly like yours
Ron

alxltd1

Meaning no disrespect, nor am I trying to be a smart a$$, but given the failure rate of these rockers what is the benefit of keeping them in the engine? I really would like to know if there is some significant advantage over other rockers that would be worth the risk that another will fail, only this time at speed with much more major damage. What am I missing?

Gray Ghost GS

The rocker that failed is a 2nd generation (pre 2010) design, which was later improved in the current 3rd generation design (see above photo for before and after). Yella Terra should be sending a complete set of the 2nd generation LS1/2/6 rockers as replacement. I have confidence in their 3rd generation design vs. going with another brand. At least I hope so...

alxltd1

Understood. I was just curious as I hear a lot of stories about their failures and yet they still have a good reputation. Thanks for the explanation.

vettenuts

I have the same as yours that were installed in 2008. I am running AFR heads with the 8019 valve springs. I plan to purchase a new set of the latest design and do the swap in the spring as preventative maintenance (car is currently in storage for the winter). I have gotten five years out of them and the wipe pattern I have achieved with them has kept my bronze valve guide wear to nil. Roger did e-mail me some time back to confirm the geometry remains the same so that the new design is a simple bolt in, i.e., I don't have to re-verify geometry and can keep my current 3/8" double taper pushrods.

RonSSNova

I was thinking of advertising mine for sale.
14 YT "might break" rockers!
Plus one pair of "will breaks".

Watcha think?

Switchbarrel

I was running the same set-up. I'm on YT set number 3.
Gold 1st gen. broke, silver 2nd gen. broke, silver 3rd gen - Cadillac racing lifter broke first.

Going with stockers in the new LS3 motor.

-Rick

miami993c297

Hi Rick,

Thank you for posting info from your personal experience here...

To make this info valuable, would you mind to post more details about your complete valve-train set-up please?
And obviously pictures from the 3rd Gen YT broken?

Many thanks in advance.
Christian

WKMCD

That sucks Mike. I broke 2 rockers from 2 different sets. I lost all confidence in them and recently installed the bushed stock rockers from CHE.

Right before I totaled the car last Friday.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...uch-worse.html

Z06ufgrad2002

Glad you are getting better support than I did from YT. I also have a set of First gen YT rockers and attempted to contact the company twice via email about getting a replacement set. I didn't even get a reply from them.

Switchbarrel

Hi Christian-

I had a 383 stroker built by Tony Mamo (the motor originally from his car). Everything built, setup by Tony. Ported AFR 205's, AFR 8019 dual springs. Gen 1 + 2 YT's broke. The lifter broke before the third set had a chance to, so Gen 3 is still fine, they only had a few thousand miles on them. Tony stepped in to get the replacement YT's for me.

Gen 1 broke at about 7k mi. I think I had about 12K on Gen 2. My car is my commuter (when it's running).

More about the motor:
http://m.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=985910

-Rick

Edit- I had my heads prior to the 383 build. I was heads/cam when the Gen 1 broke. It broke between the pivot point and the valve. Gen 2 went in then. Very shortly thereafter is when I bought the 383 from Tony. We re-used my heads/intake for the new build. Gen 2 breakage looked like most others, the tip broke off near the push-rod cup.

Gray Ghost GS

So I had their GEN 2 rockers when I had my failure, not their GEN 1 based on the descriptions provided above.

Good to know.

I got my generation numbers wrong. I thought the GEN 1 was prior to June 2010, and GEN 2 after June 2010.

I've been running AFR heads on my LS6 383 (AFR 205) and then went with the LS2 (AFR 215). Onto GEN 3....

vettenuts

I haven't heard of any of the latest generation breaking.

reactor2

Yella Terra rockers are pure effin junk. I wouldn't put that garbage in my motor if they paid me. Yella Terra, you need to make a decent product or get the eff out of the game.

miami993c297

3000 very hard miles on those Gen III upshifting every outing above 7100rpm, and still looking good:





Christian

miami993c297

Hi Rick,

Thank you for reporting and making the point clear the YT Gen III are still fine.

Christian

CTD

Greetings AlohaC5

I upgraded my YT's after reading some of the failures, I did not want to risk the motor. I replaced the ported AFR 230's with a set of ported TF 235's & swapped the YT's out at that time. The motor is finally making the power it should have, I beat on it this past summer on the dyno & the street. My cam is LSK lobes spec'd by our mutual tuner friend, not really valve train friendly.

There is no way I would ever replace a pair of those rockers, hopefully they will come to the table with a reasonable offering.

Gray Ghost GS

My vette is back to 100% with the new Gen III Yella Terra rockers from Texas Speed.

Yella Terra offered to replace the broken rocker set for free, but they were the Gen II.

They offered me a special deal on a complete set of 6406 rockers that I purchased too.

Engine feels awesome; the Gen III rockers looks much stronger than the older Gen II!!

Roger from Yella Terra provided excellent customer service - two thumbs up! Thanks.

vettenuts

Did you buy from TSP or did they provide replacements? I plan to buy in the spring and put them in once the car is out of storage.

Curious if you checked the wipe when you installed them new ones.