Roller Rockers

OK sorry if I'm beatin the dead horse here, but I searched and couldnt find the exact answer to my question. Quick story, blew the engine in my 95 4.0 HO a couple weeks ago. While Im putting in another engine I'm going to put a crane cam in it. My quesiton was are the roller rockers really worth the money?? Am I going to get that much fo a gain out of the $330 I'm going to spend? It is much more costly than the cam and lifters. I know I'll already have the engine apart so now would be the time to upgrade them, I just dont know if its worth the $$$. Thanks for any input and help guys.

Your not going to gain much, but they are nice and the rocker ratio is on the money. The stock ones work its just the ratios are not very accurate. Maybe 10 HP.

If you go to a high perf cam, you will need to change the valve springs to heavier ones....more spring load = more wear on the rockers and pivots as well as potential valve tip and guide wear from increased side thrust...yes rollers are a good idea.

I already knew about the springs and retainers, and for anyone that didnt know, I had a nice long convo with one of the guys at crane, the factory valve springs and retainers can hanndle up to a 500 lift, just put new ones in when you do your cam, unless you really want the performance name on your springs, he told me you dont need them.

If it were between getting roller rockers or a very good match port and polished head I would go for the head, Or a header and cat back, you will see better all around gains with the cam that way. Just my 2 cents. YMMV.

OK not to stray to far from my subject, but here is my list of whats being done while the engine is out to clear that up. Obviously crane cam and lifters like i already mentioned, i have headers sittin on my couch that were supposed to go in before i blew the engine, and a buddy of mine at an exhaust shop will be doing the high flow cat and exhaust when I'm done, getting a 62mm throttle body and 62mm spacer. msd ignition upgrade, not the expensive box, just the 8.5 wires and the coil. and i already have an intake. My only question is if the roller rockers are honestly going to be worth the money because they are so expensive. Again thanks for the help guys

Yep. Roller rockers can complement other mods, but free up insufficient power on their own. I'd use them in cases where I want to wring every last little bit of useful power out of an engine - but not just with a cam change.

Change the cam, but there's no real reason to spend the extra dosh on rollers - save it for tyres.

5-90

thanks for the opinion man. Im certainly leaning towards not doing them just so i can get the XJ back on the road a bit quicker. But Im not certain yet

I'm not saying don't do them - I'm just trying to help you spend your money a little more effectively. They're usually a viable mod, but they're more likely to complement other changes done to reduce parasitic drag inside the engine, rather than as a mod on their own. It's like getting a bored throttle body - yeah, it might help, but you're not doing anything about the main bottleneck - the intake runners in the cylinder head. Even then, you've got to "balance" flow - as I recall, exhaust port flow should be 65-70% of intake port flow, so that's a fair bit of head work. However, it would also go a long way toward making power and torque, so that's a good place to start spending money...

5-90

MudDawg said:

If you go to a high perf cam, you will need to change the valve springs to heavier ones....more spring load = more wear on the rockers and pivots as well as potential valve tip and guide wear from increased side thrust...yes rollers are a good idea.

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I built my stroker with Crane 753905 cam (260/272 duration) and heavier duty Mopar valve springs but kept the original stamped steel rockers. Last month (31k miles on stroker) I noticed more noise than usual from the valvetrain and it began to get worse last week. The engine still ran great with no loss of power. I pulled off the valve cover and found major wear in the no.2 and no.6 cylinder rocker arm pivots/rocker interfaces causing the rockers to have excessive side play. The others were also worn but to a lesser extent. There were no oiling problems that I could see and the pushrods/valve stems looked perfect. There was no damage to the pushrod cups nor to the valve stem contact pads on the rockers. The inside of the engine was clean enough to eat dinner from.
For now, I've replaced the rocker arm assemblies on the no.2 and 6 cylinders with spares that I had lying around and the ticking noise has reduced drastically, but I've ordered a set of Yella Terra YT6627A 1.6 ratio shaft-mounted roller rockers to cure the rocker noise once and for all.

me personally i would get the roller rockers ... i think the hella yella ones in quadratec recquire no extra macine work, no valve cover spacers etc. I think they are $300 and change i would definatley get those.

edit looked like the price jumped i looked them up, like 2 years ago i thought they were like 350 ish now they are $440. http://www.quadratec.com/products/51103_500.htm


if i was going all out and having all the necessary mahine work done and spending money on high quality after market parts for a high perf stroker i would still get them. If this is a budget rebuild ... i guess i would definately think twice as that $440 would eat into the budget a bit

OK, you guys are certainly helping my decision. I would NEVER purchase anything from the over over over overpriced people at quadratec, lol. Summit has harland sharp 1.6 ratio roller rockers for $321, so that will be what i get if i get them. I am thinking now about not doing them yet, but keeping them on the list, seeing as how easier they are to get to it wouldnt be a very hard upgrade later down the road. Not sure yet though. And again thanks for the input guys.

play_in_the_mud said:

OK, you guys are certainly helping my decision. I would NEVER purchase anything from the over over over overpriced people at quadratec, lol. Summit has harland sharp 1.6 ratio roller rockers for $321, so that will be what i get if i get them. I am thinking now about not doing them yet, but keeping them on the list, seeing as how easier they are to get to it wouldnt be a very hard upgrade later down the road. Not sure yet though. And again thanks for the input guys.

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The Harland Sharp roller rockers require some machining work to the head for them to install, and you also need to trim the valve cover CCV baffles. Since these are stud-mounted rockers, you'll also need pushrod guideplates and hardened pushrods so you'll end up spending over $450.
I ordered the Yella Terra 6627A's directly from Yella Terra in Australia for $364 plus shipping, and they'll fit under the stock valve cover with NO machining work needed.

Dr. Dyno said:

The Harland Sharp roller rockers require some machining work to the head for them to install, and you also need to trim the valve cover CCV baffles. Since these are stud-mounted rockers, you'll also need pushrod guideplates and hardened pushrods so you'll end up spending over $450.
I ordered the Yella Terra 6627A's directly from Yella Terra in Australia for $364 plus shipping, and they'll fit under the stock valve cover with NO machining work needed.

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ok that price sounds more like what i thought ... the quadratec was just the first link i could find play_in_the_mud ... not really suggesting you HAVE to buy from quadratec just that was the easiest info on them i could find.