I am replacing my rocker arms on my 56 322 nailhead and after cleaning up my rocker shafts, I see some things that make me think the shaft has issues. I have never worked on a nailhead and so not familiar with them at all. Are these marks in the shafts supposed to be there or do I need to replace the shaft? Both passenger and drivers shafts have the same marks in them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
That looks like normal wear of the shaft! The arms are where your concern would be. As long as the shaft is straight (thats what she said), then you should be fine!
I have purchased new rocker arms and pushrods from Egge Machine. I had a number of them go bad along with the pushrods. This all started while I was chasing down some valve train noise. I think the bad rockers and pushrods are what was causing the noise. Does every one else agree these are still good to be used?
Roadster, I'm not going to answer your direct question, but I AM going to help you. I'm leaning toward an UNDERLYING problem regarding your engines lubrication. This I'm basing on the new parts that have worn out, you searching for a valve train noise, and yes the wear on the shafts. Two things to discus here, pressure out and the return. Do you run a oil pressure gauge? Have you ever had the oil pan off and seen inside, full of sludge? Ever replaced the oil pump? How about the way the oil drains back to the pan, passages full with sludge? Does the engine run hot? If you ask 10 people, 5 would run the shafts and 5 would replace the shafts. I wont speculate without seeing them in person, that's just me. Have a friend with a lathe, polish them up and see and feel how the new rockers fit on the shafts. I would probably replace them, but AFTER I went through my above checklist first about the pressure and return side of the oil, hope that helps, TR
The oldsmobile 303 v8 were very noisy same setup.From the pic I can,t see the ends,do you have small plugs on ends.Those plugs can be removed and get all the dirt out of there.The oil comes up and the shaft fills with oil and if and holes are pluged the lifts tend to get noisy with no oil.If you have the new ones go for it.
On V8 Buick forum, there has been some discussion regarding the Egge rocker arms and breakage. Try and find some genuine good replacements from some fellow HAMBers. Also talk of similiar problems as you are having and worn shafts, see my post #6 again. TR
You can use the shafts from any nailhead and the arms too. 401/425's had 1.6 ratio aluminumm, earlier ones had iron, not sure what '57/'58 had. Make sure the aluminum ones have the hard tips on the valve end. You should be able to find good used shafts and arms. Jim
TR I believe you are right. I am thinking the marks I am seeing are excessive wear and the improper clearances that result from that wear is preventing the oil from getting up to the rockers appropriately. I will measure the shafts and the rockers to determine what the clearance is. I have a feeling I am going to be looking for new assemblies. I will also more than likely take back the rockers I bought. The weird thing on these aluminum rockers is that the tip and pushrod socket have steel inserts but the body where they slide on to the shaft does not. I would think that without some sort of bushing the aluminum would wear out real quick. I do have a factory oil pressure gauge. It reads as having sufficient oil pressure. I have run the engine with the valve cover off to physically see if the top of the motor is getting oil. There is plenty of oil getting to the shafts but it looks like it is no getting to the rocker tips. There was a lot of sludge in the heads, so I am sure the rest of motor is not that clean. The rockers did not have a ton of sludge on them. They were dirty but not horrible. I cleaned up the shafts and stands as well as scraped the sludge off the heads. The motor doesn't smoke or use much oil at all. Since I can not afford a full rebuild right now, I am trying to eliminate the valve train noise with out doing a full rebuild. The oil seems to be returning to the pan pretty good. I am judging this by how fast the oil I put in at the top of the motor gets to the pan. The engine runs pretty well over all and does not run hot. I just had the motor back flushed and the radiator rodded out. It also has a new water pump.
It looks like there's scoring on the wear area in this picture... and it looks like there's sludge/etc. in the holes... that should all be clean--looks like a used rocker shaft from an unrebuilt engine with the junk in those oil passages. No opinion on the pushrods or replacement rocker arms, but I wouldn't run those shafts with scoring like that. The other pics looked like there are ridges at the wear line, too. Another reason to ditch 'em. -Brad
Exactly right. After a little searching I have found that these are in fact wear marks and will prevent proprer oiling to the rockers. I have ordered fully rebuilt shafts from Buickrodder at Centerville Auto. He fully rebuilds them and bushes the rocker arms which makes them last longer than original. I am also taking back to the rockers arms to Egge Machine. I have heard horror stories about them breaking and not lasting very long. Thanks again everyone for the help on this.
never built a nailhead, but I have built dozens of BB mopars, and I own an FE, IMO, those are fragged.
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