Thread: engine teardown... pics/ proform info????

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alright well those of you who know about my little 283 previous problems, im just posting this as a question and as information, now i know new parts are going to have a little metal teardown, but when i pulled off my rocker arms, all but 2 i believe had grinddown marks.. are all going to do that? see pic below....

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and also, on only one, the self align sides, the one side could turn just about all the way around, and the bad thing being, if that little point had made its way down to a retainer, well theres more metal shavings there... see pic..

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then when i went to pull pushrods, 2 of them were horrible... also see pics,



the one on the left is a good one, the middle one had SNAPPED the tip off, and the right one just got ground to crap. hence another source of metal shavings! WONDERFULL!!!

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i guess im wondering if anyone else has had problems like this? with proform? was it something i might have done?

Too blurry to tell. Try a pic without the extreme closeup.

proform are not the best rocker arm they are ..junk... i have seen two big blocks take the tip rigth off the push rods i just do not use them for any thing the geometry is off on them lot to do with the push rod cup is in to far the rocker body with any lift they over work the push rod tip

maybe these are a bit better? ...

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well i have heard a bit about proforms being "junk", but this being after i bought them... i guess ill just go with some good ol' harland sharp's.

hmmmmm. Another lesson in ya get what you pay for........gotta wonder where all the shavings went.......

Dang! Definitely poor design or quality control. Poly-locs grinding against the rocker is not good - neither is the turned spacer on the roller side. There also must be something wrong with the oiling or the finish on the pushrod side to eat them up like that. Proform should definitely be on the don't-go-there-again list.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Dang! Definitely poor design or quality control. Poly-locs grinding against the rocker is not good - neither is the turned spacer on the roller side. There also must be something wrong with the oiling or the finish on the pushrod side to eat them up like that. Proform should definitely be on the don't-go-there-again list.

no it is the ball seat just wrong from that i have seen you need a 210 push rod end or need to be check for bind and like every roller rocker they need to be check it mid lift for the right push rod length the oil is getting thru the push rod the the ball cup would still get oil that has nothing to do with it. the rocker finish?well that could be they are not quality but are hard enough to eat the push rod ball off for the poly lock rubbing alot roller rockers in time will do this the body walks a bit and the bearing in the body start to wear or just loose from the get go

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

hmmmmm. Another lesson in ya get what you pay for........gotta wonder where all the shavings went.......

thats the funny thing, they are only like 20 bux cheaper than harlands self align.

haha and them shavings, .. went to the mains

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

no it is the ball seat just wrong from that i have seen you need a 210 push rod end or need to be check for bind and like every roller rocker they need to be check it mid lift for the right push rod length the oil is getting thru the push rod the the ball cup would still get oil that has nothing to do with it. the rocker finish?well that could be they are not quality but are hard enough to eat the push rod ball off for the poly lock rubbing alot roller rockers in time will do this the body walks a bit and the bearing in the body start to wear or just loose from the get go

not sayin ur wrong on this, but there was only about 2 - 3000 miles on these rockers. and with this being just a little street 283, it was a far cry from being up to any performance level!!

just thought i'd show this with everyone to let people know!!

Originally Posted by tim_bo16

thats the funny thing, they are only like 20 bux cheaper than harlands self align.

haha and them shavings, .. went to the mains

and to the cam bearings, the rod bearings, and don't forget all them little passages that feed the lifters, and........ oops sorry, didn't mean to give you bad dreams Tim!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by tim_bo16

Attachment 32215

Mine are rubbing on the BBC 396 but that is the only trouble I had with them.

Oh and stay away from the light beer

Are you running guide plates? I had a sbc and put rollers on it. And 2 of the tips were only sitting 1/2 way on the stem.

mooneye, nope, no guideplates. still the stock springs and pushin studs. these are on some gmpp vortec's by the way,...i had the self align rockers with them, so i was told NOT to use guide plates with self aligns' and pushins. ?? was i wrong there?

Geronimo, hah yeah we had to go cheap, as you can see why!!

dave, oh yeah, its been a nightmare all along with that 283, im done messin with it and i already got a 350 and now 2 400's in the line up. so now i just gotta make up my mind!

im also gonna go through the full suspension while im this far in, a call to hotchkis is in order, and possibly air ride technologies?!> finally get my power steering hooked up, and well, just fix all the "half assed" stuff from the first go around!!

Originally Posted by tim_bo16

not sayin ur wrong on this, but there was only about 2 - 3000 miles on these rockers. and with this being just a little street 283, it was a far cry from being up to any performance level!!

just thought i'd show this with everyone to let people know!!

well you can think any thing you want i build engines for a living i know better roller rocker on the street start to fall apart at 3000 miles. less they are good ones that very small amount of alum from hitting the polylock will not hurt nothing . the push rod tips that a deferent story you should check pushrods for size and check rockers at mild lift that is just the right way to do it .if not you will just wear out your valve guilds anytime you do not use a stock rocker arm the stock stuff is better for long use if your not wanting to check stuff .there is no short cuts

i think ya took it the wrong way pat, i wasnt trying to say that your telling me wrong, i was just trying to say that it only has that many miles.. but yes, thank you for telling me that, i had no ideal that that is the longest they last on street use.

so for my next build, you would reccomend basically a "stock" stamped steel rocker arm? or what is your choice on a good roller rocker? full roller top end better for street or no? its gonna probably be a 383 or 406, shooting for 380ish wheel hp. but yea, ill check stuff, i have no problem checking stuff, i just had no idea.

now when you check for pushrod size, how would that make much of a difference when everything is for the "basic small block chevy"? i could understand if i had ALL the wrong pushrods for size if everyone of them had ground down or broke, but it was just two of them. ? just curious! thank you pat