Lt1 top end overhaul

[JOATMON]

The Crower rockers are high quality heavy duty units but simply would not work on my intake valves. The exhaust rockers worked out perfect. It was a $636 mistake on my part. There are SBC applications that these will work on but not on mine. I kept believing what AFR says in their footnotes. This is a copy/paste;

ROCKER ARMS: The Air Flow Research 180, 195, 210 & 220
aluminum heads are designed to use standard pushrod location
rocker arms (offset rockers are not required). Clearance between
rocker arms and the retainers should be checked. For high RPM
stability, the Jessel or T & D shaft systems are recommended. AFR
stocks a complete line of standard and shaft rocker arms for your
convenience. AFR suggest for the 227 & 235 you use a shaft mount
rocker and offset lifters or a .050” offset intake rockers. With the
.050” offset the intake rocker arms will be at a slight angle and the
roller tip will not be perfectly parallel or centered on the valve tip. The
245cc only accepts a shaft mount rocker system with an .180” offset
intake lifter required.

When I finally realized that my old eyes were not tricking me and the footnotes were hogwash, the road to success was just ahead.

[JOATMON]

After I did more research in various rocker arm catalogs, I noticed that Scorpion offered .100" offset rockers specifically for AFR heads but they didn't address the plus .100" valve length and I'm running a .080" lash cap.
Harland Sharp had a set originally designed for the old Canfield 220 heads with plus .100" length valves. The featured .150" offset intakes and a roller tip relocated .030" back to compensate for the longer valves. I did some ballpark measuring and found ~.130" difference between the stud center to centers and the valve center to centers.
I called Harland Sharp and talked to a fine gentleman and discussed my problem. He sent me both .100 and .150" offset to do some test fitting.

[JOATMON]

I ordered a custom set from Harland Sharp. All 1.6 ratio, all roller tips relocated .030" back, 8 straight exhaust rockers, 4 left and 4 right offset at .100".
It took some grinding on all the guideplates to achieve proper tip alignment.IMG_1219.JPGIMG_1216.JPG

[JOATMON]

After a bunch of tedious fitting, especially having to use a mirror to do the rear most cylinders. Also ordered a set of heavy wall 120* tip pushrods. IMG_1223.JPGIMG_1222.JPGFinal result;
IMG_1233.JPGIMG_1234.JPG

[JOATMON]

I forgot to mention the Harland Sharp rockers are designed to provide a generous amount of clearance between the rocker and the springs and retainers.
Hat off to Randy Jr. at Harland Sharp, this wasn't his first rodeo with providing custom built rockers that work.

[JOATMON]

oops double post

[JOATMON]

In between waiting for parts I had to address some maintenance and clean up items. Replaced the leaky water pump(put a new Summit pump on a clean housing I had), MSD distributor(had MSD rebuild it just to know it was all good), rebuilt the alternator myself. Replaced the worn out motor mounts. Ordered a set of 42lb. injectors(up from 30lb), had the PCM tuned for the bigger injectors. New valve covers which I addressed in another thread. Also replaced the power steering pump and hoses. Damned rebuilt pump failed on start-up had to replace it again. Not long after I got it running, I had a no start situation and found the coil had failed, had to replace it too.

[JOATMON]

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