PRW Stainless Steel 1.65 Rocker close call
 

I started noticing a valvetrain ticking sound recently, pulled the valve cover and saw a rocker tip roller pin almost out.Attachment 620119 . I also saw 2 other rockers with loose pins. Needles to say I've lost all confidence in these rockers, they have less than 2000 miles on them. Something weird that I noticed when checking lash which I usually do before resetting is that most of the intake clearances were bigger anywhere from .005" to .015" form the initial .006". Not sure why this is but I think it might be to do with wear on the nut where it contacts the rocker shaft, there is a small contact area there and there seems to be some wear showing. There is sufficent retainer to guide clearance (.070") and not going into coil bind, Springs are Crane 99893 set up at 1.810" installed height.
Cam is OF with about .630 lift with Comp Solid Roller lifters. Looking for suggestion on new rockers, H & S or Scorpian, which one would give better valvetrain geometry, current have 9.4 inch pushrods which I did check for straightness.. KRE D port heads.

I've posted our experiences with those rockers many times. From the moment we put them in service (used several sets early on) they start to grind up the rollers where the pins go thru them.

On my own engine I had a few with as much as .018-.019" clearance by the time I figured out where all the metal on the magnetic drain plug was coming from.

Removed them from several other engines we had them in and same thing, found heavy wear at the pins.

I replaced mine with Crower Enduro rockers and no more issues.........

PRW quality rockers along with the open spring pressure needed to keep.630” lift in check is like trying to blend water and cooking oil.

Consider yourself lucky that you had no other engine damage.
Forget about Scorpions, there have been too many reported quality and failure issues with them also.

HR rockers have always been good, but there on the bulky side.
If you use them I would add a .010” shim under each spring unless your sure your over pressure as it is for the rpm your taking the motor to now.

That kind of stuff has been going on for years, and I don't view scorpion as any better either.

If you're budget oriented Harland Sharp is good quality if you don't mind aluminum bodies. They've been around since the 60's (I think it's been that long) They do tend to check a little bigger on the ratios, keep that in mind.

Generally I prefer steel body rockers and always go for Crower Enduro and just swallow the price tag, but lately they've been really hard to get. So last couple engines I've done the Comp Ultra Pro Magnum that are chrome molly and they have been excellent and reasonably priced.

Here are the Crowers and a 10% off discount code “10off”

https://crower.com/rocker-arms/stain...er-arms-5.html

Looking at the roller on that rocker I would pull the rocker check the valve tip. If it show wear I would pull the spring and check valve to guide clearance.

Stan

FormulaJones, can you tell us which rocker you used? I just went thru their listings and didn’t see anything for Pontiac. Did you use Ford? I have read that Ford can be used on Pontiac. Although I don’t recall seeing any at 1.5 ratio.
Thanks

Yup, sounds like what I've been finding on-line

/www.compcams.com/products/rocker-arms/steel-rocker-arms/pontiac-2_magnum-3.html

(May stay with Harland Sharp rockers, over the decades they have been a reliable company.)

Man I was just looking for rockers for my new build I agonized over some of the lower priced rockers Vs the Harland sharps . I have always run Harland sharp rockers on my cars and in the end I decided to use them again. I am so glad right now I made that choice instead of trying to save a few bucks .

They’re cheap for a reason.

As usual you get what you pay for.

Yeah but some items that were cheaper paid off like eagle rods. . I remember when rods were crazy expensive and then Eagle stuff came along and ended up being quite good. There have been items that were less money and worked out well . Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case w cams lifters rockers ETC lately.

I remember when PRW stainless rockers could be had for under $200 new, at the same time Crower Enduro were about $450.

In the long run you didn’t save anything because you had to buy something good later on.

Nowadays it’s easy to do research and see if cheap is actually good and sometimes it will be.

Do your research before pulling the trigger on parts that cost half or less than the more expensive ones. Right here on the forums there are plenty of failures reported on those PRW rockers so the information is there if you look.

Can we get those Comp Pro steel rockers arms for Pontiac ? Can't find them.

In the stud mounted stuff, I have had good luck with the Crower SS rockers. Second in line would be the Comp. steel stuff although they have Chinese needle bearings. In aluminum body, Harlan Sharp is the only stud mounted rocker I would use. Although they do have failures, they have great customer service and promptly replace defects quickly with no questions or drama. I won a set of Scorpions in a drawing at PRI several years ago. I didn't install them. Traded them for some other stuff. Too many failures in multiple engine platforms. We have had at least half a dozen rocker arm failures on the dyno over the last 10 years. This is on many different engine platforms on student engines. In EVERY case it was pretty brightly colored aluminum body rollers from off shore suppliers. Pretty risky IMO.

Even on shaft systems, these cheap rockers are a danger. I did 2 mopar engines with Proform rockers. One LA motor, and one RB motor. BOTH had failures. Even with HFT cams and modest springs.

Crower 1.5 Enduro rockers with a .407” lift 068 cam.

The 1964 9770716 heads use pretty much impossible to find new 1964-1966 rockers so I figured even though the geometry wasn’t 100% perfect (but actually fine) they’d be a safe bet for the long haul.

Buy something good and you won’t regret it later like when you buy something that’s cheaply priced and you find out it’s junk.

I use these for Pontiac when I can't get the Crowers.

https://www.compcams.com/magnum-roll...-65-ratio.html

They aren't the Ultra Pro's but they are still the 8620 chrome molly and have worked fine for me. Better than the knock off stuff and better than aluminum. They even tell you in the listing to make sure Comp is stamped on the bottom of the rocker, there are a bunch of copies out there.

x2 AGAIN.

CROWER HAS BEEN IN THE GAME FOREVER, REST IN PEACE BRUCE.

At one point it was like everyone was selling Junk from offshore.

Tom V.

It was about mid 2015 that Cliff reported the issues with the stainless PRW's. Since then both PRW and their resellers pass the problem off as being resolved. Just wondering when vicgto purchased his PRW rockers? If the purchase was way after this and from a seller that would replenish inventory pretty often, then there is still an on-going issue.

Seems it wouldn’t cost much for PRW to install quality pins and roller tips on the rockers. Damn shame one has to worry about this type of thing…SMDH