question on 3.0 rockers

[georgebertot]

i just bought a 2008 ranger with a 3.0 vulcan motor, ive read that the 5.0 rockers are a direct bolt on, my ? is has anyone ever tried 351 cleaveland rockers wich are factory 1.73 ive used them on 5.0. NOW DOES ANY ONE KNOW if the push rods need to be changed. any help would be great thanks

 

[stmitch]

The only direct bolt on roller rockers for the 3.0 are made by Tom Morana. The 5.0 rockers require retapping to a metric thread, and then the fun part starts. You have to set valve lash on each rocker with the engine @ top dead center. Some people also have issues with the 5.0 stuff not fitting perfectly, and wearing the pushrods unevenly. It's a lot of work, and trouble to go through, as well as risk (if you're inexperienced), to save $100 or so over Morana's set. Morana also offers 1.8's btw.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

The pushrod tips are made of treated and hardened steel and are close to impossible to wear out so I would think they would be just fine.

 

[JP02XLT]

What the 5.0 kit stud mount rockers wear out is the valve stem & rocker tip roller & valve guide, as they are so far from being correct in Rocker tip to valve tip geometry its not even funny. I had a set installed & they wore the valve tips & guides severely on all valves in both heads in less than 20K miles. I sent pics to the seller & they pretty much acknowledged nothing, other than say they had never seen that before, soon afterwards they quit selling them. They are nowhere close to being a simple straight forward bolt-on item as advertised, matter of fact I still have the set I took off when I gernaded the original motor. The problem is the 5.0 rockers are too long from the fulcrum to the roller tip, (I think I still have the data & Pics when I investigated this before) when installed the roller rests on the outer part of the valve tip rather than the centerline of the valve tip as they should, and with the motor in the truck it is very hard to see the misalignment due to the angle of the cylinders. This misalignment actually costs you lift as the rocker slides across the tip rather than pressing straight up & down as it would if pattern was centered on the valve tip.
I went a totally different direction on valve train components on the new motor (still full roller rockers) Performance Lifters, heavier springs & keepers, custom length pushrods to ensure correct valve train geometry. Non of the components were for a Ford & none were a direct drop in, it took some machine work to get everything to fit correctly. I spent a ton of time with a degree wheel, dial indicator, and various measuring spring tools, to make sure this setup was right, & its been flawless & good to 6K rpm all day even with 18 psi of boost trying to blow the valve off its seat & no wear what so ever.

JP02XLT

 

[stmitch]

This situation ^^^^ was what I was referring to. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

 

[JP02XLT]

No problem just thought I would elaborate a little on the "problem"

JP02XLT