I'm just wondering if there are any tricks to making an OEM rocker arm better than it already is? I've seen aftermarket "rollers" and the spoon modified set, just trying to get some insight. Thanks.

 

I would be interested in this also.

Because for most people the crane/ferrea type roller rockers and proprietary cams aren't really an option at 2500.00 plus standalone ecu tuning etc.. I was talking to ferrea on the phone the other day about the rockers asking if they have ever been heavily used on a road race engine with say 10 k of race miles on it over 5 years or so and he said" they have been used for a few road race events but mostly Drag car track only engines that do not actually see too many miles. Basically trying to talk me out of buying a set for street track use. He also talked about idle being tough with low rpm in less than perfect conditions. which makes sense but was disappointing.

 

What i'm looking for is maybe a tip on making them lighter to put less stress on the valvetrain and LMA, or something that could serve as a benefit somehow. I've just been looking at many aspects of the engine, and haven't heard much about rocker arms. I mean, i've heard of grinding them for clearance when using specific cam setups, but nothing much further than that.



So does the extra BLING serve as a grill for our B series heads when the valve cover is removed, or was it polished in that manner to reduce friction when in motion?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChickenH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would be interested in this also.

Because for most people the crane/ferrea type roller rockers and proprietary cams aren't really an option at 2500.00 plus standalone ecu tuning etc.. I was talking to ferrea on the phone the other day about the rockers asking if they have ever been heavily used on a road race engine with say 10 k of race miles on it over 5 years or so and he said" they have been used for a few road race events but mostly Drag car track only engines that do not actually see too many miles. Basically trying to talk me out of buying a set for street track use. He also talked about idle being tough with low rpm in less than perfect conditions. which makes sense but was disappointing. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, looking into rollers dont make them too streetable. ..I could be wrong, but it looks more designed for the 1320.

 

Balancing the rockers and removing the casting marks could be of benefit, I really do not see any benefit of the polishing.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EnjoyTheRideDC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah, looking into rollers dont make them too streetable. ..I could be wrong, but it looks more designed for the 1320.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yah, i remember looking into some aftermarket rocker arms (i think) and it raised idle above 2grand or something lol. or was it aftermarket lmas..i forget

 

i've thought about this also, but i think if you wanted to get significant weight out of the OEM rockers i would tig them together. i thought about machining aluminum pins(you could probably flip the stock ones around) to lock the pads together and slip it on the rockershaft to weld them so they didnt move and then drill out the pin and machine off material in places to lighten them. of course then you would only be running on the vtec lobe. but then you could run any shelf cam without getting custom ones to go with your custom roller rockers. but i havent thought seriously enough about doing this to look at all the oiling system in the rockers to see what would be affected/modified.

 

also want to know if there can be any modification can take place in rocker arms

 

subscribing, i've always wondered about something like this.......

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Natural Aspirations &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Balancing the rockers and removing the casting marks could be of benefit, I really do not see any benefit of the polishing.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If the rockers were to be balanced, what would they balance them with or for? or are they trying to achieve a uniform weight across all 3 rockers? I think the reason for the polishing is since Spoon techs spent the time removing casing and excess metal, the only options left were to re-coat them and add weight back or polish the metal and only continue to shed off weight.? ?

 

I would say balance the rockers to a uniform weight, you will never get any of the 3 to weigh the same amount

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Natural Aspirations &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I would say balance the rockers to a uniform weight, you will never get any of the 3 to weigh the same amount </TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree on the uniform weight....but I wonder what the uniform weight would change as far as performance? I mean, say you have 8 rocker arm sets balanced, what variable would perform better had they not been balanced?

I'm not trying to prove you wrong or anything, I'm really just trying to figure out if there is a way of improving the rocker system and how its done. I began to think that shaving down the casing where it protruded up from the metal, would make the rocker lighter, therefore making the stress on the valvetrain less as well...?

 

something new.. what about coatings on the rocker arms.. and what can you use to polish the contact areas at home diy, some 1500 and 2000 grit ?

 

you could maybe run an oil shedding coating on them. i think the big gain would be in the lightened valvetrain and being able to control it though. i dont know if you could run a softer spring if you lightened the rockers significantly, or if they have very little to do with the needed spring pressure when compared to the cam, valve weight, retainer weight,etc.

 

I am currently having my head rebuilt. Instead of Ti retainers I am going to lighten up the rocker arms. I am also having the rocker arm shaft treated with a anti-friction treatment.

Lightened Rocker Arms
Detailed Wear Inspection
9 Grams Lighter than Standard Rocker Arm
Ground for Maximum Weight Savings at all lift levels
Available for Honda / Acura
Includes B16A B17A B18C H22A VTEC Forged Pistonss

Competition Includes;
10 Grams Lighter than Standard Rocker Arm
Balancing to .25 Grams Available

 

To help reduce wear?

http://www.theoldone.com/compo...t.htm

also they mention coatings as well- anyone ever try anti friction coatings on rocker arms? And wouldn't it wear off the pad pretty quickly? (i'm an admitted noob when it comes to coatings)

 

they must have just started offering that huh?? i havent seen it on the site before. maybe i didnt look in the right place. or maybe i just never clicked on the oil adapter link for lsvtecs.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by clarkekent13 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To help reduce wear?

http://www.theoldone.com/compo...t.htm

also they mention coatings as well- anyone ever try anti friction coatings on rocker arms? And wouldn't it wear off the pad pretty quickly? (i'm an admitted noob when it comes to coatings) </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, not so much to reduce wear on the rockers. I'm looking for something more along the lines of this...

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by OH_1fstgsr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am currently having my head rebuilt. Instead of Ti retainers I am going to lighten up the rocker arms. I am also having the rocker arm shaft treated with a anti-friction treatment.

Lightened Rocker Arms
Detailed Wear Inspection
9 Grams Lighter than Standard Rocker Arm
Ground for Maximum Weight Savings at all lift levels
Available for Honda / Acura
Includes B16A B17A B18C H22A VTEC Forged Pistonss

Competition Includes;
10 Grams Lighter than Standard Rocker Arm
Balancing to .25 Grams Available</TD></TR></TABLE>

Now, with that being said, will a lightened rocker arm effect the valve train in the same manner as replacing the retainer to titanium? Actually, I think that they serve seperate purposes, as the ti retainer is also supposed to be stronger than the particle metal retainer from the OE manufacturer. I mean, they'll both lighten up the valvetrain assembly, but will the lightened rocker reduce the need for a ti retainer??

 

OK, i just weighed a set of my H22 rocker arms.

primary = 89.4 grams
mid = 97.9 grams
secondary = 89.7 grams

heres how i see it. the mass of the rocker has to counteract the mass of the cam. im sure youve noticed that the primary is the smallest lobe(referring to mass), followed by the secondary, followed by the VTEC lobe. so to me , it makes sense that they vary in weight. id leave em as far as balancing is concerned.

i would however like a set of roller rockers. and ideally id play with the geometry, but that would mean changing the head

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by clarkekent13 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To help reduce wear?

http://www.theoldone.com/compo...t.htm

also they mention coatings as well- anyone ever try anti friction coatings on rocker arms? And wouldn't it wear off the pad pretty quickly? (i'm an admitted noob when it comes to coatings) </TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm sure coatings would have to wear over time, The theory of a starvation of oil in the head linking to worn cam journals and rocker pads has been around for some time. Good link though on the oil plumbing kit. Its got me thinking about getting one, On top of wear, I'm wondering of some performance tweak out there to even further compliment valvetrain.

 

i actually just payed for a sandwich adapter that i plan on using to plumb some lines to the valve cover

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bluedlude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">OK, i just weighed a set of my H22 rocker arms.

primary = 89.4 grams
mid = 97.9 grams
secondary = 89.7 grams

heres how i see it. the mass of the rocker has to counteract the mass of the cam. im sure youve noticed that the primary is the smallest lobe(referring to mass), followed by the secondary, followed by the VTEC lobe. so to me , it makes sense that they vary in weight. id leave em as far as balancing is concerned.

i would however like a set of roller rockers. and ideally id play with the geometry, but that would mean changing the head </TD></TR></TABLE>

I can understand that...

So if we set balancing aside, would reducing the overall weight of each rocker provide an added gain in performance? For instance, reducing each rocker by 6 grams, would the outcome be benefitial, harmful, or just plain out pointless?

 

from what i can understand, reducing the weight of your valvetrain is over rated. thats more of a full on race thing where every bit of acceleration you can squeeze out of the motor counts. but mass counteracts vibration, which reduces wear.

now ive got my own theory on why cams themselves cause rocker wear, but it might be kinda confusing....

 

the only thing i can think of to modify factory rocker arms is to just have both the rocker arms and camshafts cryo treated. we did this to our rockers and cams about 3 years ago and the lobes look as good as when they came out of the box! its worth the money for cryo treating imo. check out this place http://www.cryoscience.com good luck!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by AllMotorRandy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the only thing i can think of to modify factory rocker arms is to just have both the rocker arms and camshafts cryo treated. we did this to our rockers and cams about 3 years ago and the lobes look as good as when they came out of the box! its worth the money for cryo treating imo. good luck! </TD></TR></TABLE>

what do they do torch the rocker pad and then put it in liquid nitrogen?