Thread: Road Trip Surprise

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We headed up to Des Moines, IA Friday for the Heartland Good Guys show. Stopped mid-way to top off tanks & stretch legs, then did the last 100 miles. All was fine at the stop, but as we pulled off of I35 I heard a distinct tap-tap-tap from my engine. We went ahead and checked in to the hotel, and agreed to make a run to a local car wash to get rid of the bugs & road grime. While there we used a big, long screw driver as a stethoscope and isolated it to the passenger side, near the front, but there was no miss. On the way to the fair grounds across town the tap increased a bit, then it seemed to develop a miss. We got registered, and idled in to find a place to park. About three hours later one of my buddies asked if we were going to pull that valve cover before we went back to the hotel, since it was cool by now, almost 4pm. When we removed the cover this is what we found:

DSC00376.JPG

From the review of symptoms I think that the intake on #1 lost the pin retaining the roller, and that rocker started slapping the valve and dropped the pushrod out of the cup. At that point the rocker went crooked and bent that pushrod into the "S". As we were going from the car wash to the fairgrounds I'm guessing that the pin and/or roller got tangled in the #1 exhaust, and that casting snapped causing the total miss.

We scrambled, and were able to hook up with a couple of guys from Karl Performance & Karl Kustom in Ankany, a suburb of Des Moines. He made a call and told us that he had a set of replacement Scorpion rockers at the shop, and that he thought they could scrounge up at least two pushrods of the proper length, or very close to the same, and that they were open until 6pm. As he was giving us directions Jim Hidy had his car keys in his hand, and he asked if we had a way to get there - he was ready to give us his car for the trip!! We had transportation, so we ran out, got the rockers and once back had the two replaced in ten to fifteen minutes. A quick re-start and it sounded good.

This morning we headed back, and it made the run without a hitch, running about 80mph most of the time. It's cooling in the barn now, and I'll be changing out the remainder of the set, along with new push rods for grins. While I'm messing with it I'm going to compression check #1 to ensure that everything is OK there, and may borrow a scope to peek inside that one, too. I'd really prefer to NOT pull the head, and based on the way it acted I don't see any reason to pull it right now, providing the compression is good.

Sorry about the hard luck, Roger, but now you know what your facing so good luck with the repairs and keep us in the loop.

Em

thats a bad deal you may want to up grade your parts line up replace all your old rockers with scopions and move up to a better grade push rod

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

thats a bad deal you may want to up grade your parts line up replace all your old rockers with scopions and move up to a better grade push rod

Already there, Pat. Here's the set minus two plus new Trend pushrods.

DSC00377.JPG

Well that was quite a bump in the road!! But it sounds like it'll pull through in good shape... How was the show "without" this worry?

The show was great! The fairgrounds venue is one of the best around, but is also a killer for anyone wanting to see everything with tree lined roads that a lot of people park along as opposed to the Good Guys assigned areas. One of my road crew had not pre-registered and he was #3493 at about 1pm Friday. Pretty sure they topped 4000 by mid-day Saturday. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but will post a few a bit later.

dealer for both Trend is all what i use and there in MI day away turn around

Roger: that man with the handful of spanners to chuck in the machinery has a lot to answer for!

He always does it just when you think things are going good!

Now that's ugly! Glad you were able to get the parts you needed when you needed them. I guess this is the kind of stuff that puts a bit of extra interest in the journey.

Wow, good think you didnt drop a valve and Ka-blewie the engine!

I'm hearing of more and more failures from Scorpion rockers. I used to recommend them all the time, but no more. Step up to the plate and get a set of Harland Sharp rockers......bulletproof.

I'm not certain TI but, the ones coming out I don't think are Scorpion... The ones going in are..

Originally Posted by 34_40

I'm not certain TI but, the ones coming out I don't think are Scorpion... The ones going in are..

Right, already have the Scorpions and they are in the engine now. Talking to Scott Sehr this morning he shared that he used Scorpions almost exclusively, but then about two or three years ago they started having quality issues so he dropped them. He told me that the Scorpions sold today are a beefed up design, and that they source from a reliable shop now so they are back on the Good List. He asked me to send him the failed parts, and he's going to bat with the manufacturer to see if he can get them credited as a quality problem. We'll see.

there builds in my gallery that been built with howards / pbm/ scorpion that are 3 years old never busted a body on them all are big body? did have some out of a offshore engine that the were getting loose about 10 years old set that god only know what they seen . botom line you need to trust your builder . it helps ...BUT from what i seen you had lower qualtiy rocker arms and ball tip POS push rod. i had one that bit me in the ass NO more cheap junk rockers or cheap low grade push rods less bone OEM build s .your running a small HYD roller cam ? that about 125/145 on seat and 325 or hair more and busted a rocker body and the roller pin fell out . i used scorpoins that were 260 seat open 700+

Originally Posted by techinspector1

I'm hearing of more and more failures from Scorpion rockers. I used to recommend them all the time, but no more. Step up to the plate and get a set of Harland Sharp rockers......bulletproof.

really tech . that busted stuff is not Scorpion ?? you do know that they make rockers for more then one cam company . i would love to see all them junk rockers and who put them in and if there was more to the story ?... i bet there was .... i used them in many builds.i never seen a body fail .Harland sharps i seen fail bust so there far from the best a good rocker but not better then a scorpion from what i seen and used many many sets over the years .for the money crowers are some of the best or the new comp steel rocker arms crane golds were the best as well for stud rocker arm . over the years i used just about every ones rockers but i will not use cheap rocker arms