Rocker arms: roller rocker, stamped steel roller tip, or stock

[mattfranklin]

Originally Posted by Coley

Yeah...very good video, thanks for sharing on that.

I have heard about the advantages of the 1.6 rockers....even just having them on the exhaust, although I don't have any experience with that.
I think some guys have added that 1.6 advantage to basically an otherwise stock engine and cam and ended up with a slightly higher valve lift and more power as a result.

What I would be curious about is if anyone knows if a 1.6 rocker can be run with the stock valve cover?....definitive info.

All good
Coley

Back in the day people used to use Plasticine clay to check for piston to valve clearance with high-lift cams and domed high-compression pistons. If no one responds with a solid answer about stock rocker covers, I think you could put a couple of globs of it on a few rockers, turn the engine over a few revs, and see how close it gets to the cover. And then know that in a running engine it would be tighter when the lifters pump up. Also, there are thicker valve cover gaskets available to help with clearance.

Also, on the rocker issue, the official Chevy Power Catalog (in my late 1980s edition), suggested trying higher ratio rockers. They also said try them on intake alone, exhaust alone, and then together and see what performed best.