Jay Laifman
Donation Time
Someone mentioned that there is a guy in Florida making roller rockers for our Alpine engines. Anyone know anything about them?
I've now circled back and provide the following summary of the 8 pages that follow. I ultimately bought the rockers from Creative Workshop in Florida owned by Jason. They are now installed and I'm very happy with them. I got stock ratios because I didn't want to have to pull the head off to confirm I had clearance. The whole reason I did this was because my rockers and shafts were worn and clacking. I was just going to buy new ones, but Rick at SS suggested I get the rollers instead. In the process, I looked in through the spark plug holes with a tiny light and watched the clearance of the valve to the piston top - and it looks like I could easily go beyond stock ratios (but I don't think that is a good enough test).
The installation had some hiccups. As further described below, if you have the round spark plug hole head, with the factory shorter push rods (10 1/8"), and you don't care if your rollers are a tiny bit off center, you should be good. If you have the square hole head and stock pushrods, you might need to grind the head passageway a little for two of the pushrods to clear. If you want the roller tips to line up perfectly, and your valves have 1.516" spacing (that I've found on all heads so far), you will need to mill your stands to .840" wide - and grind away a little around the narrower surface.
(1) The roller tips did not line up perfectly on top of the valve ends. I had to have the rocker shaft stands milled narrower to .840" wide. Now they match perfectly. Note that I did not mill them evenly on each side. One was shifted a little right, one was shifted a little left, to get the rockers centered. I have no answer yet why others have installed these rockers and not discovered the same issue - but I've yet to be in contact with someone who still has their car with them on who can measure their stands and valves). As best I've been told, the valve spacing is identical in all Alpine heads (1.516"). I do have one thought: (a) my stands were NOS from SS and turned out to be a little bit wider than stock; and (b) the roller rocker design changed from straight cut rollers to beveled edges, which slightly narrowed the contact area. Perhaps combining the wider stands and the beveled edges made it so obvious that I noticed they were not lined up and kept going until right. It could be that with stock stands or straight rollers or both, I would never have noticed.
(2) The overall width of the roller rockers body is narrower than stock. So the large springs in the center of the rocker shafts are not as compressed - it is even worse if you mill the stands. It could use a few spacers to squeeze the springs to the compression they were.
(3) When mounted, the adjuster tips with the rollers are positioned a little narrower than stock. This did two things. I'm running a Holbay head, which is the later 1725 head with large square spark plug holes. I had aftermarket hollow pushrods which are wider. The combination of all those things caused the sides of two of the pushrods to hit the inner side of the head where the pushrods went through. I used a Dremel to grind away the interfering aluminum. However, later I had to switch to stock pushrods which are narrower. Since I already ground the heads before I did that, I don't know now if they would have hit too.
(4) There are at least three different lengths of pushrods in Alpines from the factory 10 1/18, 10 3/16 and possibly 10 5/16. My aftermarket pushrods are 10 5/16. The body of the roller rocker where the adjusting screw is is lower than the stock one. As a result, the lip of the pushrod cups hit the bottom of the rockers. So I had to go with the stock shorter ones that Rick sells. That took care of this issue. And FWIW, with the 10 1/8, the roller path (forward and back) is centered over the valve tip.
And don't forget to readjust the rockers once the engine is hot!
I've now circled back and provide the following summary of the 8 pages that follow. I ultimately bought the rockers from Creative Workshop in Florida owned by Jason. They are now installed and I'm very happy with them. I got stock ratios because I didn't want to have to pull the head off to confirm I had clearance. The whole reason I did this was because my rockers and shafts were worn and clacking. I was just going to buy new ones, but Rick at SS suggested I get the rollers instead. In the process, I looked in through the spark plug holes with a tiny light and watched the clearance of the valve to the piston top - and it looks like I could easily go beyond stock ratios (but I don't think that is a good enough test).
The installation had some hiccups. As further described below, if you have the round spark plug hole head, with the factory shorter push rods (10 1/8"), and you don't care if your rollers are a tiny bit off center, you should be good. If you have the square hole head and stock pushrods, you might need to grind the head passageway a little for two of the pushrods to clear. If you want the roller tips to line up perfectly, and your valves have 1.516" spacing (that I've found on all heads so far), you will need to mill your stands to .840" wide - and grind away a little around the narrower surface.
(1) The roller tips did not line up perfectly on top of the valve ends. I had to have the rocker shaft stands milled narrower to .840" wide. Now they match perfectly. Note that I did not mill them evenly on each side. One was shifted a little right, one was shifted a little left, to get the rockers centered. I have no answer yet why others have installed these rockers and not discovered the same issue - but I've yet to be in contact with someone who still has their car with them on who can measure their stands and valves). As best I've been told, the valve spacing is identical in all Alpine heads (1.516"). I do have one thought: (a) my stands were NOS from SS and turned out to be a little bit wider than stock; and (b) the roller rocker design changed from straight cut rollers to beveled edges, which slightly narrowed the contact area. Perhaps combining the wider stands and the beveled edges made it so obvious that I noticed they were not lined up and kept going until right. It could be that with stock stands or straight rollers or both, I would never have noticed.
(2) The overall width of the roller rockers body is narrower than stock. So the large springs in the center of the rocker shafts are not as compressed - it is even worse if you mill the stands. It could use a few spacers to squeeze the springs to the compression they were.
(3) When mounted, the adjuster tips with the rollers are positioned a little narrower than stock. This did two things. I'm running a Holbay head, which is the later 1725 head with large square spark plug holes. I had aftermarket hollow pushrods which are wider. The combination of all those things caused the sides of two of the pushrods to hit the inner side of the head where the pushrods went through. I used a Dremel to grind away the interfering aluminum. However, later I had to switch to stock pushrods which are narrower. Since I already ground the heads before I did that, I don't know now if they would have hit too.
(4) There are at least three different lengths of pushrods in Alpines from the factory 10 1/18, 10 3/16 and possibly 10 5/16. My aftermarket pushrods are 10 5/16. The body of the roller rocker where the adjusting screw is is lower than the stock one. As a result, the lip of the pushrod cups hit the bottom of the rockers. So I had to go with the stock shorter ones that Rick sells. That took care of this issue. And FWIW, with the 10 1/8, the roller path (forward and back) is centered over the valve tip.
And don't forget to readjust the rockers once the engine is hot!
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