Rocker clearance
As time and miles marches on with our beloved FE some things become a more prominent problem than in years gone by. As we will look at in the article getting a set of used rockers that are serviceable is getting scarce. There are companies that manufacturer new OEM rockers , roller rockers , and if you look your factory rockers cam be bushed at significant cost . But if you have collected up enough parts over time, sorting out a set is possible. We will show what to look for and what clearances are acceptable.
Rocker shafts OD should be betweening .839 and .840, Ford manuals state that acceptable clearance is .002-.005 on performance application with steel rockers. .002-.0025 is a good target. On aluminum rockers, .0025-.003 would be ok with the growth rate of aluminum. ID of the rockers should be between .841-.845 so a bit of mix and matching is required . Remember rocker arms are basically a giant oil pressure bleed off so clearance is important. So follow along as we go though a few sets to build one.
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Four shafts to get enough rockers to build one set.
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| A box of leftovers for a future project |
A good ultrasonic cleaner with Simple Green concentrate mixed with water maxes removing 40 years of grease easier.
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| Found some that were good ID but years of service and excessive clearance beat the valve tip into the rocker theses are scrap. |
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| A set of snap gauges are used to measure the inside diameter of the rockers . After setting the gauge a micrometer is used to read the ID. |
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| After much searching 16 suitable rockers were found and cleaned. Then using a quality Redline assembly lube they are assembled making sure the oil passages are pointed down. While on the subject of rockers there are two diff bolts . 6 are standard bolts ,2 have a shorter threaded section and a necked down shank to allow oil to flow from the head and pressurize the shaft. So with a little time and cleaning supplies we saved $300 and the time waiting on a set of rockers to arrive. |