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stud girdles

C

cak1983

Well-known member
first day out on my new boat I broke one of my rocker studs and got stranded on south side of sarno.welcome to airboating Ha. I was thinking if a set of stud girdles would prevent this from happening again and make my valvetrain a little stronger. I know its going to take a few trips to work the bugs out but I spent 5 months building this rig and nothing but problems. I might have ajusted that valve alittle too tight I really dont know. Let me know what you think. Chad
 
Thunder what are you eluding to? I have a set a of trick flows but i don't think they are twist wedge or maybe they all are?My victor Jr are the only heads i have not had any trouble with and i had a big solid roller on them. The mid lift # on those AFR are tempting?
 
Dave hit the nail on the head here with head castings. The AFR castings open up the pushrod pinch-point on the intake side to get some "free" flow, but the way they do it is by using funky guideplates that cock the rockers slightly sideways rather than using an offset rocker. The problem there is not only somewhat funky geometry, but the only guideplates available are over-hardened crap that break the tangs, and often with a big cam they're really hard on studs. You can band-aid the studs if you use nothing but large-radius ARPs, but once in a while still get stung by the guideplates. Note to all here about rocker studs...Use NOTHING BUT ARPs! A stud girdle will help and maybe get you off easy, but I can't stress enough the importance of ARP rocker studs. Second to rod bolts, rocker studs come next in importance.

Now the TFS Twisted Wedge head is one of the best out there for guys usin low-lift cams (below .550). But once you go above that they kill valveguides and are plagued with valvetrain issues. Another trick with those castings is to use a ball-type rocker such as Comp Magnums that are rollertip only. The ball fulcrum allows the rocker to find home, rather than fight the axis of the rocker fulcrum. It's a GREAT airboat head, just don't try putin a .600+ lift roller cam on em, or expect the bearings to live long if you use full roller rockers. JMO

Felber
 
I bought the cheap set of heads off of ebay for 700.00 (procomp).210cc intake runners,2.05 int.,194ex. The first thing I noticed while assembling the engine is the roller rockers did not line up perfect with the valves.The guildplates were pushing the pushrods sideways so I loosened the studs and the guildplates had play side to side. I dont know if thats normal but I adjusted them to set my rollers up on center of my valves. When the 383 was running good it made lots of torqe at about 3500 and on. Diffenitly in investing in some arp studs. dont want it to happen again.Just to let anyone know how i got back was i took the other rocker arm off and pushrod and just let the lifters come out off the bore.Drove it on 7,made it back. Then when I got back to my shop I took a magnet and placed the lifters back in there bores and replaced the stud and fired it right up.just a trick to get home
 
crap i got a 599 hydraulic roller Thats with the 1.6 crane golds. xe 294 comp. ran this before and dropped a valve but had the wrong springs. Got the right springs know but the wrong heads for the cam. Might have to go back to a little stick. Motor was killer before! :? Thanks for the heads up!!!
 
Aligning the plates the way you did is standard practice, so no problem there. The Pro Comps are some cheap heads, but in reality they're pretty damn good for the money if you were one of the lucky ones to get a good set.

Sounds like the ARPs may be all you need. But for future consideration. Pulling the lifters will stop all oil flow to any lifters forward of the ones you removed and cause a drop in oil pressure to all the others. So while you're changing those studs, I'd check all my pushrods/rocker cups real close before reassembly. If they look toasted, I'd look deeper to make sure valveguides, lifters etc are still doin OK too. I don't blame ya..I would have done the same thing to get back in, but also do it knowin there's probably gonna be some damage from doin it.

Felber
 
Dropped a valve in those pro comps in 45min. and had the heads check out first. had a 570 solid flat tappet may have bean to much strain for them? talk about getting your feelings hurt!
 
Dan, don't get too freaked out. I don't know if you have the TWs or not. I haven't used their newer Super23s and can't really say much about em. I was referring to the Twisted Wedge heads. And honest as the day is long they're (TWs) GREAT heads for an airboat, but only under the parameters I was talkin about. If you have the newer conventional heads they came out with since Summit bought them, you may be good as gold to .700+...But I just haven't been there with em yet. And as you know, if you need any help checkin over your parts or combination, you know where to find me. :)

Felber
 
I checked everything real close no damage to the naked eye.Ive read alot of pos and neg feedback from procomp heads but im satisfied with the performance,just hope they hold up.I think the stud was my error of overtightening,but you learn as you go.if i run arp and adjust correctly I shouldnt need stud girdles.the springs are rated for 550 lift and my cam is 512 with 1.6 rollers,thats for all your help
 
i think you are right. Might have to get you to look it over. I can't afford any more RnD these days :D I sent them out to total engine air flow ans spent some money. I would like for you to tell me if i got my money's worth? I'll say to my eye i was not impressed. I did have a higher level ferara sd valve put in them. I had them cut from 72 to 64 at a angle and cnc'ed.multy angle valve job. I bought the 60 over trw forged 10/1/2 .1 with total seal rings. Got it as a kit from jegs. I wounder how crappy my quench is and if the rings are a good choice? They cost more so they have to be better right? :lol:
 
I have had my share of problems with conventional SBC AFR's like Mike said use a ball style rocker but even then bigger cams will still break studs and spit pushrods. I got tired of spitting pushrods every-time I hammered down. Plus no way would I use them on a customers motor because some people don't know when they have a dead hole and they will keep running around till everything stops! So many people make killer heads now I just buy them bare and put in all good parts! screw that assembled kit junk!
 
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