Since no one else has jumped in here, I will offer what little I know. At some point their history, the rocker arm ratio was increased from 1.5 to 1.6. So yes, I believe they have major significance.
Yes I understand that one set of pictures is a 49 and the other is 55. The numbers I was interested in were the random numbers 7-16-14-5. The 55’s have 135- 155 - 9
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rocket-oldsmobile-v8-information-compiled.715390/ Rocker specs are listed. Looks like either 1.5 or 1.8 My guess is those are part numbers which could change year by years or a running change required a number change
Ratio was 1.5 from 49 to 51, then changed to 1.8 in 52 and later. I once had a few different years of rockers and noticed that the oil holes changed through the years that I had. The holes were located in different locations and there might have been fewer holes on the earlier ones, but I can't recall for sure. Mine were 53, 55 , and 56. All the constant changes makes it look like they always had rocker wear issues and noise problems that they tried to address. The numbers might coincide with those changes, IDK
I know the difference between the years I was wondering about the 16-10-2, the miscellaneous numbers on the opposite side of the GM part number.
The Jalopy Journal
