I just pulled the valve covers off of my C5 to swap the 941 valve springs with the 918s with Ti retainers and I saw something hanging out of the side of the rocker over the exhaust valve of cylinder #2. It was a rocker bearing, or at least a good portion of it :mad. I found more broken pieces of the bearing inside the rocker and I still havn't found the outside cover for the bearing. It's probably in one of the comparments around the center head bolts. Needless to say the rocker was a little loose before I loosened the rocker arm bolt. I guess that exaust valve wasn't working to well.

Who knows how long it been broken. I had my cam installed over a year ago and I have the rev limit set at 6600 rpm. I ran consistent 12.7's at Ennis last Saturday and the car has been running great. All springs and pushrods look great.

Anyone else out there have any problems with stock rockers?

Steve



[Modified by SteveL, 8:41 PM 2/22/2002]

 

WOW,
Good thing you found it when you did! That could be messy.
I haven't heard of this problem before. Could of been a bad bearing.
Tim

 

Almost identical to me. I was preparing to install Crane 1.8 Rockers and noticed stock rocker partially broken on cylinder 8. Pulled out several pieces of the rocker sitting right on top about the size of the eraser end of a pencil. I had noticed a tick tick tick sound for a long time, probably at least a year. Decided to curtail 1.8 rocker install and replaced rocker with a new stock rocker. So, I was probably losing almost all power from that cylinder. Very lucky...

 

Sounds bad!! By the way, how difficult a job is it to replace the springs and rockers? :confused:

 

Man, you are lucky. Thank the LS1 god that nothing seriously happened. I have never heard of something like this happening before. Good luck! :flag

 

Seems you found all right in time!! :cheers:

Good idea to go with the 918 !!!!
They seem to be great springs.
I have them on my new heads also.

Michael

 

918s and one new rocker are installed and working great! I'll have to keep an eye on the rockers every once in a while ;).

jw38, changing the springs isn't too dificult. It took me about 5 hrs from start to finish.

Here's what I did.
1. Remove the coil pack racks and valve covers on both sides.
( freak out when I see a rocker arm falling apart! )
2. Loosen all of the rocker arm bolts and remove the rockers on the rail.
3. For each cylinder do the following:
a. remove the spark plug.
b. insert a fitting in the spark plug hole for using compressed air.
c. turn up the compressor to 40-60 psi in the cylinder.
d. use a valve spring compressor to compress the spring on the car.
e. use a hammer to gently tap the spriing compressor/compressed spring
to free the retainer from the keys.
f. remove the keys with a magnet ( too tiny to pull out with your fingers)
g. remove the old spring and release from the spring compressor
h. compress the new spring in the compressor and place over the valve
stem
i. place the keys back in the new retainer( this can be tricky )
j. uncomress the new spring
k. turn off the pressure from the air compessor and restore the spark plug

4. replace the rocker rail with rockers( torque to 22 ft lbs)
5. replace the valve cover and coil packs.

Just don't loose the valve keys(keepers). I placed a towel around the work area to catch the keys if I dropped them.

Steve



[Modified by SteveL, 6:38 PM 2/23/2002]

 

Yep, I broke two rockers also (on my last car - 99 Coupe) and the needle bearnings were found on my magnetic drain plug :eek:

Took it to the dealership and they replaced them..

BP

 

Many F-Body LS1 guys have encountered this. Doesn't seem to affect anything or harm anything. Might want to check ls1tech.com or ls1.com

 

It sounds like you got lucky finding it when you did.

 

I guess we'll find out soon if mine are okay. :)

Here's the picture or your broken rocker.



[Modified by Teddy98Z28M6, 12:41 AM 2/26/2002]

 

Happens all the time, even on bone stock cars. Try to collect as many of the roller bearings as possible....around 32-33 of them (I think) are in each side, and only one side should have spilled open. Usually you'll pull some out on the drain plug when you change your oil.

 

:eek: :confused: :eek: Aaahhh, stop it! You guys are scaring me now. Just picked up my 97 about a month ago. Only 24000 on it but now I'm gonna check just for ease of mind. Bummer, now I'm gonna be useless at work for the rest of the day now.