Are the Gold Race roller rocker arms a waste of money? Are they junk? What kind of gain do you get from these things? A machinist told me today that they are worthless junk and that I was wasting my money. He said they are known for shedding aluminum chunks into your motor and that the most I could ever expect from them is 5 HP.

Your thoughts please! Please tell me if you have them or have tried them before.

Thank you,

John

The gold race rocker arms are certianly not junk, they will give you approx. 5 maybe 10 HP. However they cost quite a bit. You may want to check out theComp. Cams rocker arms. They have a very nice set of roller tip rockers for a great deal less. Personaly I'd go with the comp cams, but that is my opion, hope it helps

Well I got the Roller Rocker Arms today and took a good look at them. They don’t seem to be made very well. I am thinking of returning them and getting my money back. If all I get is 5 HP for $300 then they are not worth the money.

I have read Ads that claim 25 friction free HP on a small block Chevy and when I told the machinist this who owns a dyno he said that he has never seen them make those kind of gains. This guy has been in business for forty years. He said that I would be better off taking that money and getting a nice set of headers which he says would give me 15-20 HP on my 3.4.

I'm not a big fan of aluminum rocker arms. Especially on the fiero because getting the valve covers off is a big pain. They use "poly-locks" and over time they become loose and when they become loose thats when they shed aluminum chunks. My friend has them on his chevelle with a 406 small block and al heads. His valve covers are easy to get off so i dont see the problem. If one becomes slightly loose over time, then take the cover off and tighten them. It's not that easy for the fiero. And my buddy doesn't drive his car every day either. If you really want aluminum rocker arms, get harland sharps for Small block chevy. They're the samething only cheaper. Thats what most everyone i know runs. You'll have to modify the heads slightly if you plan on running SBC rocker arms. I use comp cams roller tipped rockers. They're smiliar to the stock design only have a roller tipped. If i were to do it again, i wouldn't get 1.6 ratio roller rockers. They're hard on stock valve guides( i had to get hardened bronze guides) Now i should be ok. I'd go with the comp cams magnum roller tiped rockers. I think it was like 200 for springs, keepers, retainers, and rockerarms and pushrods. 2-3 i cant remember. They make the engine run smoother and rev cleaner. But it being worth the money for the hp gain, it depends on how far you plan to go with the engine. I've got all the cheap power adders done, I just spent 620 dollars for 10 hp. And damn cool looks and sound. I got custom equal length headers made. I'm even thinking of getting an electric supercharger just for the cool sound and a little added performance. Mostly just for the COOL appeal.

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Mike LeCompte
86 Fiero GT 3.2L w/ Nitrous

I'm going to just confirm what Hypno said about the SBC rockers. You have to retap the rocker studs to 7/16" to accept the SBC rockers, and they will be off-center of the valve tip, but only about .030" which is plenty close for rollers. And your selection will be ten times that of the rockers specifically for your motor.
The aluminums will give you a certain extra increase over the stmped steel roller tips, since they do have needle bearing pivots, versus the ball pivot. I don't have any experience with the locks coming loos though, so I can't comment on that.
I'd check out rockers on EBAY, I see the Harland Sharpe rockers on there all the time for the small block.

-Taiji

For a cheap, highly effective rocker arm upgrade you can replace the stock stamped 1.5 ratio's with stamped small block 1.65's. Use the stock balls so you don't have to mess with the studs. Don't forget to measure for new pushrods. Around $150 total cost and highly effective. More lift without increasing duration.

PJ
ITA #66 Black

[This message has been edited by PJ (edited 08-11-2000).]

I believe I read somewhere that the Fiero v-6 stock rockers are actually only 1.42:1 ratio. 1.5:1 would actually be an upgrade.

Does anyone here actually have the Crane Cams roller rocker arms?

They came on my big block in my pro-street 69 camaro when i got it. They worked ok, but again had to be tightened regularly. But i did have a solid cam, so that's not a fair arguement against them. My buddy uses harland sharp(which use the same poly-locks as the crane cams) And even with a hydraulic cam he has to tighten them every so often.

Today I used my torque wrench to find out if the roller rocker arms actually reduce friction a significant amount. I used a torque wrench to turn the motor over with the stock rocker arms and it took 16-ft. lbs. to turn it over continuously. It took 12-ft. lbs. to do it with the Crane rockers installed.

I did a visual to see if the Crane roller tips actually roll over the valve tips. They did not roll; they just slid over the valve tips.

[This message has been edited by 88formula (edited 08-12-2000).]

I seem to recall reading that GM shifted to roller tipped rockers on the newest version of the 3800. Can't remember where, maybe Car and Driver. I haven't heard of any problems with them, especially with the 100,000 mile tune-up requirements. Is it possible that they may fit on the 2.8 as easily as the SBC roller rockers?

You brought up a good point 2birds but GM uses roller fulcrum rockers with no roller tips I believe. I remember seeing them on 98-99 3800 engines when I worked at a Pontiac dealership.

If GM put roller fulcrum rockers on their 3800 engine they must have had a good reason too. GM as we all know doesn't like to spend anymore money than they have too.

I would think that the roller fulcrums would be more useful than roller tips if you had to pick, but I'm not an engineer.
Are the Fiero valves designed to rotate? If so, how would roller tips affect this?

Well, I are one...

For what it's worth (not much), if the effective rocker ratio is really 1.5 at highest load (maximum valve lift), then the fulcrum sees 2.5 times the valve (spring+ friction+ aero) load. The pushrod sees only 1.5 times the valve load, and of course the tip that actuates the valve sees (duh) 1.0x the load required to actuate the valve.

So, not knowing anymore than that, if I wanted to reduce friction and wear in the rocker arm, I'd start with the fulcrum.

Boy, that was a lot easier than doing any actual work! And I didn't even get (very) dirty !