rockers on the rocks?

ITS very hard to effectively judge, from the video clip, simply because I can,t see the push rod to guide slot clearances, or judge the force used on the rocker,in the brief film clip, I don,t know if the rocker stud is under size ,if the rocker bearings are loose, I don,t know if its the screw-in style, rocker stud, and its come loose or the press-in style and its pulling out of the head,or if the rocker trunnion is drilled oversize, rockers are supposed to have some slack to allow them to self align to some extent and much of the clearance can be the result of miss-alignment, worn push rods, loose threads on the adjustment lock nut to stud clearance, or the hydraulic lifter seat not maintaining its supporting oil pressure, after the engines oil pressure dropped, or it might be installed with less than ideal geometry, Id suggest checking the condition of the valve tips, push rod seats and compare it to the other rockers.
on a hydraulic rocker you can usually adjust the slack at idle by backing off until the rocker clicks at idle, then slowly turning in the lock nut until the noise/clicking has stopped then adding an additional 1/4 turn, just like the stock stamped rockers .
careful side bye side inspection of the suspect defective rocker and comparing it with what appears to be a good rocker then swapping their locations and retesting, while watching the results should isolate the cause, bearing and bearing retainers can wear or come loose so check,, if you adjusted them cold without the engine at idle I frequently see a couple rockers exhibit that slack after running a few hours, but adjusting them at idle tends to eliminate that problem.

by the way, once you get them adjusted with the 1/4 turn past the clicking has stopped at idle and locked the set screw in the center of the lock nut with an allen key you generally use a 5/8" wrench to give the adjustment nut about an 1/8th turn to remove all slack or they can come loose over time, so in effect you have the adjustment at about 3/8th of a turn tighter than just at the point the rocker stopped clicking at idle.
yes having a tall valve cover with the center cut out for doing valve adjustments is usually a good idea as it limits oil splash on the engine during the process.self aligning rockers have ridges to prevent the rocker from moving off the valve stem
COC1318-1.jpg


p177897_image_large.jpg

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The Studs are screw in and they are tight, the push rods look good with just some "very little" wear from the guides the tips (ball ends) look good, top of the valve really dont show any wear, the roller tip on the one rocker I removed looks good too the "play" it has is from the center barrel that mounts on the stud between the barrel and the rocker body


it all looks good just want to be sure they are not going bad when I seen the play in the barrel it kind freeked me out
 
if all the other rockers, you pull to compare condition with don,t exibit almost IDENTICAL PLAY OR SLACK, you can be reasonably sure THAT rocker has bearings or races that are in the early stages of becoming worn/defective, and it should be replaced before it fails.
steel roller rockers like crower and comp cams sell can in some cases be rebuilt.
cca-1331-16_w.jpg


use of push rod guide plates, chrome moly steel push rods and decent quality standard roller rockers seem to have the least problems.
Ive used rockers similar to these on most builds and IVE yet to see one fail, like the cheap cast aluminum ones do, occasionally\

http://www.compcams.com/ultrapromagnum/

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAK ... TPG=INSRHI

magnumtop.JPG

ERSON cams also makes a decent aluminum rocker
http://www.pbm-erson.com/store.php?catI ... dparent=24


BTW EVER WONDER WHY WHEN YOU PRELOAD THE LIFTER MORE THAN ABOUT A 1/4 TURN ON THE ROCKER ADJUSTMENT NUT THE VOLUME OF OIL SQUIRTING OUT OF THE PUSH RODS DROPS OFF RAPIDLY,

thats really simple, the seat in a hydraulic lifter rides on a cushion of pressurized oil, oil that's displaced up the push-rods as the cam lobe sweeps under the lifter base, as the lifter returns to the cam lobes base circle the lifters seat is pushed back up to full height by oil pressure (one reason lifters tend to click with low oil pressure)
the potential problem is that the total distance the seat supporting the pushrod moves is usually about .055 thousands, a full turn on a rocker nut is usually .040, so the more you preload the lifter the lower the volume of oil under the lifter seat

picture may help

BTW roller lifters are very similar just with a roller wheel added to the base
self aligning rockers have ridges to prevent the rocker from moving off the valve stem
COC1318-1.jpg



15-Exploded.jpg


http://www.vetteweb.com/tech/vemp_0204_ ... index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_NpzU4p ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_REQ1PUM0rY

you might want to watch these strobe light pictures of valves at higher rpms

ValveSpringClearance.gif

valvespringinstalled.gif

obviously getting the clearances wrong, or over reveing the engine can cause problems
valveinpiston.jpg


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in this picture the self aligning rocker is the center one with the raise ridges that keep in centered on the valve tip , the two end rocker require guide plates
p177897_image_large.jpg

self aligning stamped rocker

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viewtopic.php?f=52&t=2746
 
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