Wanted: Roller Rockers for 1700 Ford Crossflow.

[barcorebar]

Hi Gang,

 

I am looking for Roller Rockers for 1700 Ford Crossflow. I am also looking for a remote Oil Cooler.

 

My car is an '85 Caterham...FYI. I Replaced the Stock 1" thick Radiator (what were they thinking...the replacement radiator is 4x bigger) with the newer Huge Copper Radiator, right before the ALUMINUM one came out.

 

Richard Gibson

Annandale VA (Wash DC)

703-207-0066

[xflow7]

Out of curiosity, what's your application that you're after the rollers for? I only ask because I believe I've read from some of the xflow gurus on BlatChat (i.e. Roger King and some others) that, although the rollers reduce the side loads on the valve stems and guides somewhat, stock rockers are actually better for high-rpm use as they are lighter.

[barcorebar]

I was under the understanding that the valves tend to float at higher RPM. I thought the roller rockers would solve this. Is there another way?

 

Richard

[xflow7]

Hi Richard,

 

I'm not an expert by any means, but it seems that the roller rockers are higher inertia than the standard rockers (maybe not too surprising with a big steel roller hanging off the end) and therefore in general make valve float worse not better.

 

Of course, many people do use them apparently without issue, so it is likely quite application dependent. It seems that with some camshafts they work well, whereas with others they can cause problems.

 

Here are a couple of threads from BC for reference. The first one has a particularly good post on the subject by Roger King:

 

http://www.blatchat.com/T.asp?id=48469

http://www.blatchat.com/T.asp?id=9432

 

There are other threads that discuss rollers if you search there (most are 2+ years old, though, so make sure to set the date filter to "Since the Beginning" )

 

If you're planning to bump your rev limit and are concerned about valve float I would suggest seeing if you can contact the cam manufacturer and make sure you are using the recommended valve springs. Also, I believe steel posts and maybe upgraded rocker shaft *are* highly recommended top-end upgrades for serious xflows if you don't already have those.

 

You could also call a couple of the good xflow builders in the US (Marcovicci-Wenz, Jay Ivey, etc) and see if they have any thoughts they'd share.

 

Dave

[barcorebar]

Thanks for the info. Very enlightening. Revving to 9K... I was just shooting for 7700rpm. I have pused that threshold with a RMP limiter and never experienced valve float, so Roger Must be right. The motor has been running good.

 

Richard