Ok im pulling my hair out frustrated, assembling my engine today to get my f1 on the road and the pushrods are touching the head right where the pushrod goes through the head. the adjustable rocker arms are 1.8 Mcqurks rebuilt by rocker arm specialists, with 1958 rocker assemblies, Engine is a 57 371 olds with a solid cam from engle. Its touching just the upper edge of the hole. Have you ever heard of this being common. Any suggestions please let me know Thanks alot -andrew
If nobody answers, I can test fit a 1.5 McGurk on a 1.8 shaft/stands to see if that can happen. I am thinking either your rocker stands are not 1.8 or your rockers are not 1.8
well thats why im baffled, the stands are 1958 only with the 2 extra stands at the very ends. And gary at rocker arm specialists measured and confirmed they were 1.8's So ya weird.
only time I had that issue was when I used 3/8" rods in a 394 I had to grind the head a bit to get clearance it does sound like you need to check your stands and rockers easy enough to do with a dial indicator and calculator
bump to top.. How about some history on this motor...are you the one that had a fresh motor go bad last year on first start-up? Was this motor put together from random parts? Also, Head casting number? etc.. ...anyways, on my 324 stuff, the rocker stands are simple to ID. A 1.5 stand has the bored hole for the shaft exactly centered between the 2 hold-down bolts. A 1.8 stand has the bored hole offset and almost has the rocker shaft touching the bigger hold-down bolt shank. The hole of the shaft, and that big bolt(head bolt) actually intersect. If you look down the bore of the head bolt, you can actually see the edge of the rocker shaft. On a 1.5 stand, none of the holes even come close to each other. On the rockers, I honestly could not ID a 1.5 from a 1.8 unless I had both in one hand. So, if your valve train is not hitting too bad to damage a pushrod, I'd do the indicator test on the top of the valve retainer and the rod end of the rocker...then calculate the cam lift X 1.5 or cam lift X 1.8. Then see which calculation matches your actual valve lift. I was told by an Olds guy who raced back around 1960...he said all the Olds guys had both rocker ratios on hand because certain aftermarket cams were designed for a specific ratio. I have no idea if this could be your problem or not.
to check offset of rocker I use a simple dial caliper measure from contact pad at valve end of rocker to the near side of shaft hole measure from center of pushrod receiver cup to near side of shaft hole measure shaft hole diameter and divide by two add that to the first two measurements divide the big number (valve pad to center of shaft) by the little number (pushrod cup to center of shaft)
cool well ill check that in the morning, im pretty sure that i have 1.5 rockers on my 1.8(58 Stands) I have a set of iskys which are the same as the mcgurks on the engine. My engine was also ordered to work with 1.8 rockers. So i dont know what to do. I might just bite the bullet and get tony at ross to send me set of those sexy roller rockers. Bolt it in and its done im so tired of dickin around with this. Paul you going to be at billetproof this year?
to answer your question F&J ya this is the replacement motor (the pics of the last one are my profile), the engine last year was a old stock rebuild, i didnt know much about it. This one should be a nice one, i ground down the gears off a spare distributor gear so i can prime the oil pump with a drill this time and double check everything hahaha. Yes, This engine all from parts i started with a block and a pair of heads, I bought a lot of stuff from Tony at Ross Racing inlcluding a balanced rotating assembly, SS Valves, timing set and a bellhousing. Way nicer and more precise than the shitty EELCO one i had. His parts have been top notch and hes been Great With Tech and advice. Stand up guys. Thanks for the help on measuring the ratio guys.
I'm not an Olds guy, but it seems to me your geometry would be off if the stands didn't match the rockers. This is a visual check and basically is concerned with the rocker contact being centered as much as possible as it sweeps back and forth on the tip of the valve. This is usually fine tuned with the pushrod length, but,,,,,,,
they are what i was worried about they are 1.5 rockers, It all makes sense. So kids, if you want to use 1.8 rockers use 1957-58 Olds stands. if you want to use 1.5 ratio use 1949-56 Stands. -andrew
[hi i know a dr oldmobile in michigan willis dennis he know allot about this 57-58 371 ,and spesialist on your problem send me a e.mail and i can give your info.from ken norway have 10 58 oldsmobiles
The Jalopy Journal
