As a result of my improperly broken in, lashed and possible bad cams (found in thread https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=895728) I ended up refinishing all 24 of my rocker arms. As a refresh, here are what my rocker arms looked like.









Here's the general outline of the process...

Materials:
- Oil (same as you run in your engine)
- Sand paper (180, 220, 400, 600, 1000, 1500 grits) You will probably need more more sheets of your 2nd grit (220) than the others.
- Cleaning products
- Bench grinder with polishing wheel and polishing compound
- Any sort of deep socket (I used a 3/8 12mm deep)
- And of course, a H-T Favorite: Beer.

Process:
1. Remove all rockers from head (from passenger side holes), and note order. All rockers should be reinstalled on the same shaft and in the same order.

2. Remove all VTEC pistons from rockers and note position to be reinstalled in original location.

3. Place rocker (one by one) independantly in a vice (properly padded in vice).

4. Cut sandpaper into squares and wrap a small piece to cover the entire surface of the socket. Sand the rocker pad in the direction of the grain of the metal, lengthwise across the rocker pad with even, controlled strokes. Sand until the majority of any scores, marks or pockets are removed.

Here is what they will look like with a 220grit finish:



In comparision to old...




5. Repeat step 4 with every grit of paper up to 1500. I actually did all the rockers up to 220, then begain with rocker #1 again them all up to 1500. I did this to ensure that I would keep a consistent technique for the roughest grit.

Here is all of them done to 220:



6. Once all rockers are done to 1500, time to bring them to a nice bench grinder with a polishing wheel. Once again, polish each rocker in direction of the grain of the metal (lengthwise).

7. Now its clean up time. Get yourself something to soak the rockers in overnight. I made them a little varsol bath.



8. Once removed from the bath, and ready to assemble, I pulled out some brake cleaner and prepared a new container filled with my motor oil. Now begins the assembly process. With the rocker shafts pulled out ready to install the rockers (in reverse order), begin to spray each rocker arm and vtec piston individually with brake cleaner, let dry, dip each component in oil, assemble the trio of rockers and install.

Voila, you will have yourself a set of rockers like these:







I reinstalled original B16A cams in my head and broke the rockers/cams in together at 2500rpm for 10 minutes. Valve lash is stock. I will continue to drive the car for another 500 miles or so until pulling the cams for a full checkup.

 

Great Writeup, Keep us posted.

 

this should be sticky'd

 

This should have a disclaimer. Everyone read the other thread he linked very carefully before you think about doing this.

Edit: Didn't mean to **** in your cereal, it looks like you did a nice job. Props for the hard work.


Modified by powerofdreams8 at 9:15 PM 6/21/2004

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by powerofdreams8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">this should have a disclaimer. Everyone read the other thread he linked very carefully before you think about doing this.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I am very confident that there will be no problems. The material removed is definately considerably less than 0.001", and discrepency in valve lash due to this will thus be no more than 0.001", meaning valve lash in worst case may be slightly +/- 0.001".

Regardless, like I said, I will post up photos and updates when the valvetrain has more milage on it.

 

nice work...great write up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by powerofdreams8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">this should have a disclaimer. Everyone read the other thread he linked very carefully before you think about doing this.</TD></TR></TABLE>

quote from the other thread:
" i guess you have CNC hands."

 

nice

 

Yea, I would be concerned with the tolerances being off, but I guess the material taken off is practically nothing.

 

Yup, ha ha ha, I have CNC hands.

I'd think that keeping the comments until milage is put on the rockers and I pull the cams...

 

Ive heard rumors that mirror polishing the rocker faces is a good idea, anyone heard this? I beleive spoon sells polished rockers, but thats not saying much.

 

i've been a strong believer in LS heads and recently converted to an ls/vtec setup. as i neer the process of assembly, i decided to look at my rockers to see if its the same scenerio just before i button everything up. and i do have a little bit of wear on some of the rockers and i'd like to refinish them.

problem is i don't know how to get the damn rockers out in my LS they just fell out haha, could someone shed some light on this for me? tia

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tegasaurus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">problem is i don't know how to get the damn rockers out in my LS they just fell out haha, could someone shed some light on this for me? tia </TD></TR></TABLE>

Step #1 - Get a helms

VTEC rockers are hinged on 2 rocker shafts, one for intake side and one for exhaust. On both sides of the head there are 10mm plugs inline with the rockers, on the distributor side, the VTEC solenoid housing covers the other exit.

Removal all the plugs, pull the oil orifices that are on the timing belt side (refer to some sort of illustration on acuraautomotiveparts.org), and use a 3/8 extention to push the rocker shaft out. Be careful not to lose any pistons in the rockers and to keep them paired together during removal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by teg92 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Step #1 - Get a helms

VTEC rockers are hinged on 2 rocker shafts, one for intake side and one for exhaust. On both sides of the head there are 10mm plugs inline with the rockers, on the distributor side, the VTEC solenoid housing covers the other exit.

Removal all the plugs, pull the oil orifices that are on the timing belt side (refer to some sort of illustration on acuraautomotiveparts.org), and use a 3/8 extention to push the rocker shaft out. Be careful not to lose any pistons in the rockers and to keep them paired together during removal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

helms = $$$

well i figured all that out, but the oil orifces wont come out - is therea trick to these things?

 

wow teg92......nice job on the rockers......

 

 

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

well i figured all that out, but the oil orifces wont come out - is therea trick to these things?</TD></TR></TABLE>

After you get the threaded plugs out just pop the orfices out with a small flat head screwdriver.

 

Where Omniman's comments in that other post ever validated? Keep us updated if you end up having anymore problems.

 

Are the outside rockers polished down too so that you would have the same lash on the Vtec rocker as the outer rocker?

Excellent job on grinding and polishing.

 

What about the surface hardness and the shape of the rocker becoming altered?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rocket &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Are the outside rockers polished down too so that you would have the same lash on the Vtec rocker as the outer rocker?</TD></TR></TABLE>

All rockers recieved the same amout of strokes, and IMHO, realistically the difference of material removed on each rocker is definately VERY much below 0.001". In fact, total material removed is probably barely 1 thou.

Everything is still running great. I will be pulling the cams in probably 2-3 weeks. I will keep this thread updated .

 

Very cool.

 

.001 is "thick" as far as surface hardness is concerned.

 

Now correct me if i'm wrong, even if more material is taken off of one rocker?

Isn't that why we have valve adjustments

 

The rockers have a radius to them... if that is altered, the rocker ratio will change despite what the valve lash (ajustment) is set to. I am not bashing this post, but surface hardness needs to be considered here.