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Anyone seen or bought these?

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All I can say is to be REALLY careful with these. I, personally, would not buy them as I don't know where they came from.

I was really into the Pontiac Grand Prix crowd (yes, there's a decent following, FWD 3.8's running 11 second 1/4's and used as daily drivers!). A vendor released their version of an aluminum roller rocker. The tip wore into the aluminum almost immediately in numerous sets of these, sending shavings throughout the engines.
 
You can't just put 1.5 roller rocker arms on a your standard set up (1275) and it work, that what cooks about these ads, they are being sold by idiots. Your stock rocker ratio are is around 1.25, so you might get by with using some Harland Sharp (that what this rocker arms are) in the 1.3 ratio, but rocker arm goementry are will be slightly off and what you have to worry about is the pusrod hitting the head. To use the Harland Sharp 1.5 rocker arms, you have to hav pedestal that reflect the 1.5 ratio pivot point. Keep in mind all this guy is selling is 8 roller rocker arms, no adjusting screws, no pedestals, no shaft, my advice, run Forest run!

There is a guy from out west, I talked to him several years ago, as we had designed some CNC rocker pedestals for the 1.5 harland Sharp rocker and he sells the Harland Sharp roller rocker arms on Ebay as well, about us making him a batch of pedestals, as it turned out out our machinist buddy was covered up with work and couldn't get to them, we heped with the technical side of the pedestal and he got them made out his way. This is where buyiny the complete Titan set up Winner Circle and Mini Mania pays off, unless you want to get into making pedestals these are useless without them. I do know a guy who drilled out his stock pedestal and made a offset pedestal bushing to relocate the pivot point though, but you need to be a machinist or good friends with someone who is.
 
Oh something to keep in mind, if these are being sold for a 1500 triumph motor also used in the RB Midget, that stock rocker ratio is 1.477, so it might be close enough to work, after reading the ad a little closer it does state it for a 1500. I did however have a customer buy a set of these for his MGB to use with his cross flow aluminum head which has smaller pushrod holes than the cast iron head, the pushrod hit the head because of the rocker arm ratio change, even though it wasn't much different, I could have fixed it by milling the pushrod hole larger in the head but the owner didn't want to pay any more money for the mods, so we put the stock rocker arms back on.

The guy that is selling this stuff is some sort of doctor and not mechaniclly inclined, so looking to him for technical advice is out of the question.

Get the bushed Titans, they are not that much more and they are truely bolt on, except I like to have solid spacer for roller rocker arms rather than the cheesy springs.
 
When I chatted with the guy TS Imports, he said that anyone selling the 1.5 roller rockers for the 1500 (which I believe are the same as in the eBay ad) and claiming they are a performance booster is a charlatan. He told me the main purpose is to increase component life. He also claimed to have put them on loads of engines he built for customers. There is alot of room for the push rods on the 1500, so I don't think a difference of .oo8 is going to cause them to rub.

Just throwing that into the mix. I don't have any real world experience with the product.

Okay, I have a confession. I secretly really want someone else to try them so I can learn if they are any good without blowning my own money. I am bad person.
 
OK Morris, I’ll bite. I bought a set of the 1.3:1 Harland Sharpe rockers for a 1275, knowing full well that I would regret it, but I wanted to see what they were like. Well I was right, I regret it. The set up time was several hours and I’m still not happy with the geometry. I had to grind the side of some pedestals and add shims to others to get the roller tip to line up with the valve stem. After this was done then I had to measure and cut spacers for between them, each one is a different size. When all this was complete them I assembled the head on the engine and found the push rods were rubbing on the head and the holes for the pushrods would need to be opened up. At this point I pulled them off and put the stock rockers back on. I’ll deal with the head the next time I need an alternative to my self-mutilation disorder.

As Hap said, these do not come with the adjusting screws. You need a set of 5/16”-24 adjusters that came with the factory pressed steel rockers; the ones in the sintered metal (look like forged) ones are too small. They will cross thread in but will strip if you load them up.
 
I also saw those rockers. Decided to go with the Swiftune 1.5 rocker sets - including new shaft, pedestals springs...all that you need. Of course they cost more.
 
I'll reiterate what Hap sez........

You really need a NEW rocker shaft. Using you OLD shaft you will be GETTING the shaft as it is probably worn.

Sharp makes realllyy reallly good products. Some of his rockers (for A motors 4 example) are .100" longer on the pushrod side so as to center the pushrod in the hole in the head. So this necessitates NEW and diferent pedestals which have to be CUSTOM MADE as Winners Circle have no more in stock.

I would suggest that most (if not all) of folks get a complete assy. EVEN THEN , there are installation issues. Put the $250 in a freshen up or a GOOD set of headers.

EVEN THEN...there is geometry issues and pushrod length issues UNLESS the new rockers are IDENTICAL in length and ratio to the ones you are removing.
 
Never mind. I thought these were for a 1275. I was thinking that it would be a whole lot easier than chaning out a cam. I rebuilt mine stock and hope to be firing it up again soon after many years. I was just thinking about adding extra power if everything else worked out ok.
 
Bruce, your Swiftune roller rockers set is more than likely a Titan set, which are good stuff. Titan are good because they are a complete assembly with pedestals, only drawback is they use thier own shaft size, so if you ever need to replace a shaft you have get one for thier set up.

As Jerry mentioned the HS rocker arms are good stuff, they just are always a slip-on fit ans many have mentioned in their sale pitches. I charge norammly a couple of hundred dollar to just set a set of roller rocker arms on a race engine, that's not including if I make solid spacer, it's a ton of work, it's fairly normal to test fit them a dozen times before you get everyhting right, even with the Titan set ups, it's a chore,and I don't recomend using roller rocker with the spring, you really need solid spacer. Jerry alos mention the roller rocker arms with roller bearings on the shaft, this as he mentioned is a waste, bushings are fine, in fact i don't know if HS even offers full rollers anymore, no one was buying them for our cars. The Mini Spares roller tip set is about the best bang for the buck ( they are made by Titan), Winner Circle and Mini Mania carry them.
 
Hap, the last set I did took 8 hours or better to get the valvetrain geometry optimized, including getting the pushrod length right. Maybe more time than most people are willing to invest.
Jeff
 
ok so i am a newbie and engine idiot..but what do the rockers do??
 
camshaft turns and its lobes lift the lifters, that push the pushrods, that rock the rockers, that open and close the valves.

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Well, they rock ;-)

Pushrods ride on the lobes of the camshaft (on a lifter). The rocker acts as a sea-saw....as the pushrod pushes one side up, the other side of the rocker goes down and forces the valve open, letting in gas/air or letting out spent combusted material.

The higher the ratio, the more the valve opens. I.e., a 2:1 ratio would mean that the valve opens twice the distance the pushrod travels. The roller aspect is supposed to reduce friction and wear and free up some power.
 
Whoops, didn't see Page two, throught nobody had answered your question yet.
 
""""""Hap, the last set I did took 8 hours or better to get the valvetrain geometry optimized, including getting the pushrod length right. Maybe more time than most people are willing to invest."""""""

It's kinda like spend the time now or spend way much more time later......in sweeping up damaged parts.

Valve train geometry using common shafts and pedestals takes a lot of time. Sure you can always throw thing together....but have a large dustpan handy.

Ohhh...BTW Hap.....I guess the meeting was....kinda....exclusionary??
 
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