rocker arms, need your input Options

[bernbomb914]

Has anyone used 1.5 lift rocker arms? are they any better. I have a .475 lift cam now. but was told to put in these rocker arms (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif)

Bernie

[Jake Raby]

(1) They are forged and incredibly strong

(2) Due to this they can be drastically lightened if you want more revs and lighter valve mass

(3) They are self oilers meaning that the oil that travels up the pushrod lubes the rocker shaft, adjuster and the valve guide

(4) Better lube in the guides means less friction and less heat- Thus cooler heads with guides that last longer

(5) For over 20 years the ratio rockers were not available. Due to this many cams were designed to use stock ratio rockers, including ALL BUT ONE of the web grinds that are catalogged! Having a camshaft with an incorrect ramp rate can acelerate valve events to the point that valves simply snap off from velocity- We see that alot with incorrectly mapped valve train arrangements. When it happens kiss the entire engine good bye.

(6) Higher ratios may gain MORE valve lift with the same given amount oc lobe lift, BUT they drawback is increased tension being placed on everything downstream of the rocker shaft centerline. For instance a stock ratio rocker may put X amount of stress on a pushrod, lifter and cam lobe but when the ratio changes and the pushrod moves closer to the rocker centerline the amount of stress placed on these items is multiplied by the added ratio.

This makes for pushrods that deflect, and lifters and cams that wear even more

(7) NOBODY did it like VW!!

we run stock rockers lightened up to 18 grams each to near 9,000 RPM and make 100HP per liter with them....

Ratio rockers are eye candy at this point. We were working on some that would actually work but it was so expensive we could never sell them...

Stick with stock, its all we use as a general rule..