Is the roller rocker kit for 350 small blocks, offered by Ecklers worthwhile? They claim a 15hp gain, and decreased wear. Are they a straightforward bolt on, and are any special tools required? Any adjustements afterwards? I will guess no, since these engines have hydralic lifters.

 

Go to the performance sections of the chevelles.com or camaros.net sites. There is a ton of info on both sites, both good and bad. Unless your stock rockers are pretty far out of spec, it would be pretty hard to find 15hp with roller rockers. I use 'em because of spring pressures and cam lifts. Don't skimp on 'em, a destroyed roller rocker in your engine results in those tiny needle bearings everywhere and that's about as bad of a catastrophe as an engine can experience because it can cause absolute and total destruction. Harland Sharp is probably the best budget roller rocker for hot street but most racers I know either go to Comp's Pro Magnum or Crower's steel pieces when lifts and spring pressures get high. Once you get to the point where you really need a stud girdle, you should really consider shaft mounts from T&D or Jesel, IMHO. HTH

 

More like 4-5 hp with a stock cam and only if you go from a 1.5 ratio to 1.6 ratio.

Also, a Corvette is just a Chevrolet. Buy performance engine parts from Jegs or Summit unless you want to pay a 30-50% markup to a Corvette specialty dealer.

 

Summit or Jegs. Anyplace else is a waste of money.

 

lot's of people forget that...

 

A Chebby 350 is a Chebby 350, be it in a pickup, a Nova, grandma's 300 foot-long grocery-getter, a Checker Marathon, or a Corvette.

 

Just from the nature of your questions, I would forget about roller rockers. Nice for bench racing at the local cruise but not for a practical street engine. The HP improvement is just hype. It is more of a necessity and practical with all out race engines, you dont need something that requires constant maintenance. But if you do this, then buy some taller valve covers too for clearance and learn how to adjust poly-locks. There is really nothing wrong with the stock rocker arm assembly. All of the "stock" so called anyway, 550HP plus fractory engines { L88-LS7 ect.} work fine right out of the box without rollers day in and day out. Plus they are trouble free. If your asked and it`s important, just say you got um, no one will know the difference. If i`m asked ,I say, I have roller tip pushrods.

 

"Constant maintenance" ... yeah. That's why GM started using them in new engines. They put on more expensive parts for no improvement and more warranty work. Suuuuuure.

 

Whatever!

From what bench did you get your racing experience?

 

Umm...probably the messy one in the garage. Anyway, the LT4 used bowtie-branded Crane Gold roller rockers, and I believe most of the LSx engines use a rocker with a roller trunion and a conventional tip. The roller parts require quite a bit more manufacturing work and expense. If it wasn't worth it, they'd still be running cheap stamped old-school rockers. Same logic goes for roller lifters - if they weren't better, GM would still be using them in their engines. Flat tappets are quite a bit cheaper...but rip apart most any GM engine for the last 15-20 years, and there are roller lifters.

Carbs, flat tappets and stamped rockers...gotta love the 1920s. Don't worry, new technology won't hurt you. Old dogs can learn new tricks!

 

I would say no they are not worthwhile for you. If you want to improve performance in order of best bang for the buck, they are pretty low on the priority list. Once you have the low hanging fruit out of the way you might go try them out but I would wager you could find better uses for the money first before these would make any sense.

Maybe you could post what you have now and what you are looking to do with it. Engine details, tranny, rear gear ratio, etc.

-Mark.

 

It's very tempting to fall for all the marketing hype from the car magazines and their sponsors. This is a variation of the old bigger is better theory, which we all know is often false. Throw a bigger carb on without any other changes and it many times hurts performance and drivability. The trick, in my opinion, it to try to figure out what really works, and what is cost effective. Yes, roller rockers are probably a upgrade, but mainly necessary only for high lift/heavy spring cams. If you are building a hot engine, spend the money. But just to change them on a engine that is running fine now, total waste of money. You will never notice the 1 hp?? gain.

 

no sense in getting all spotty and puffy about it..

there is a difference in adding rollers to the old block vs using a newer roller block. the roller block is built to accept a roller lifter that is "flattened" so it can't twist. the conversion rollers usually have two "tied" together to stop them from twisting around..

for me, i spent a little more and got a newer block because i think they are better if you're going roller....

as far as roller rockers, i agree, there are better ways to get more bang for the buck (heads)

 

I would question anyone thinking "Im Batman". Is that statement for the truth, or is there an exception for state of mind? FRE-803. Get your head out of the comic books and hot rod rags. Now read the question in post 1 again and start over! Ok. It asks about roller rocker arms not roller lifters in a stock early 350. And the question is whether there are any benefits for the roller rocker arms. Your score on that question is zero! You cant even read correctly. Oh, and by the way, roller rockers and lifters were available in the late 50`s, not 20`s. And yes I use them in my race cars too, but not for the street. Take the advice of other answers and you wont go wrong. ARF, ARF,

 

Buy your parts at Summit or Jegs. If you have a very mild low lift
factory cam a 1.6 ratio may give you 6/7 HP but its not worth the
price of the parts. You would have to buy new pushrods, rocker arms
and if you go roller rockers tall valve covers.

 

I mentioned rockers. I also mentioned some other new technologies that get pooh-poohed by people on here who seem to be stuck in a bygone age of hot-rodding. As I said in the last post, if the roller rockers weren't worth it for a street engine GM wouldn't be paying for them on new cars.

And since you think the name is soooooo funny, I'll explain it - my dad bought the car shortly after the 89 Batman movie was released. He thought it looked kinda like the 89 Batmobile, and he loved the scene where Michael Keaton is holding some two-bit crook over the edge of a rooftop and tells him in a menacing voice "I'm Batman." He put it on the plate, I've just never changed it. There ya go. I'll change it when I finally get aorund to a new paint job.

 

In the beginning of the SB Chevy design some thought roller rockers would add hp. Chevy agreed to change the design to roller rockers if any hp was added. Despite the efforts of some including Smokey Yunick, no hp was gained.

Roller tip will work fine for many, which fit under the L-82 Al. valve covers. Any increase is due to the increase of rocker ratio as stock measure about 1.47 so even 1.52 is an increase.

I have posted many times that full rollers are needed for over about 6500 rpm &/or when valve spring pressures are over 350 lbs. to prevent galling of the ball pivot.

 

.....alot more if you use the stickers that come with them i got them ,did not see a hp gain but i did think that they are a better idea than stock .

 

Apparently, GM "STILL" considers stamped steel rockers as quite adequate ... even for racing:

GMPP Crate Motor P/N 88958602 has STAMPED rocker arms and FLAT hyd cam ... THOUSANDS sold and they hold up & perform real good ... This is a current motor and is selling VERY well. I shepherded one just LAST NITE! The 602 is a conventional iron SBC with iron vortec heads ... straight from GM! Its stamped rockers do NOT have roller tips ... and do have conventional ball fulcrums ... 1.5:1 RAR ... I KNOW this to be FACT. AFAIK ... 602 is simply a 350HO street motor that's been outfitted with circletrack tin.

Horsepower: 350 @ 5,000 RPM
Torque: 390 ft./lbs. @ 3,800 RPM
Max. Rec. RPM: 5,500
Compression Ratio: 9.1:1
Block: 10105123 Cast iron four bolt with 1-piece rear main seal.
Crankshaft: 14088527 Nodular cast iron.
Connecting Rods: 10108688 PM Steel
Pistons: 12361371 Cast Aluminum
Piston Rings: 14089025
Camshaft: 20502476; Lift: .435” I, .460” E; Duration @ .050: 212° I, 222° E
Lifters: Hydraulic Flat Tappet
Timing Chain: 14087014
Valve Cover:: 25534359 Kit With Breather Tubes
Oil Breather:: 25534355 Breather Kit
Cylinder Heads: 12558060 Cast Iron Vortec, 64cc combustion chambers.
Intake Valves: 10241743 1.94”
Exhaust Valves 12550901 1.50”
Valve Springs: 10212811
Rocker Arms: 10089648 1.5 Ratio
Rocker Arm Nut: 25534352 Special, ”Kool Nut Design”
Intake Manifold: 12366573 Aluminum High Rise Dual Plane
Distributor: 01104067 GM HEI
Valve Lash: Zero
Spark Plugs: R44LTS Gap @ .045, Rapid Fire #8 Gap @ .035
Ignition Timing: Max. 32° Total @ 4,000 RPM
Fuel: 92 Octane Unleaded Gasoline
Oil Pan: 25534353 8 Quart Black Powder Coated Circle Track With Oil Filter. It includes a full louvered windage tray, oil scraper, three trap doors, oil level plug, 8” deep sump, a 3-1/2” kickout on the right side, and a 3/4” oil pick up tube.

picture of above:
http://www.sallee-chevrolet.com/Chev...s/88958602.jpg

 

Here's a good article with dyno results - roller rockers show 17hp increase over stock stamped rockers.

http://www.compcams.com/Community/Ar...p?ID=521241382