After Weeks..I Finally Get The Whole Rocker Arm Wipe Pattern..Pls Critique - Pics

[slownrusty]

Guys - This whole pattern thing on the rockers has been kicking my ass! After a few weekends and a few phone calls to Paul Rusch (BRAAP), I finally got it figured out - FINALLY!!!

 

Paul Rusch has been simply awesome, the guy is incredible and did some great handholding, and trust me I needed it! I appreciate it very much Paul!!!

 

So after my one millionth time, I got the technique down. I think an ant sliding down a blunt razor blade would be less painfull than setting up an aftermarket cam on a L6, but its all about perseverence, persistance and any other big "P" word out there...LOL!

 

In one of Paul's threads he talked about having the cam wipe closer to the pivot end:

Here is that post and its on Phil's N42 head:

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=108398&highlight=wipe+pattern

 

So here is my most recent attempt - which is the better wipe pattern the left (0.170" lash pad) or right (0.180" lash pad) or what is your overall critique, should I mess with another lash pad thickness. The left has more "wipe" at the pivot end:

 

 

 

Thanks guys!

 

Regards "giggly like a school girl" Yasin

[BRAAP]

Yasin,

Glad we were able to help out.

The wipe pattern looks great. In looking at your margin on the back side of the rocker, the .170 pad is as far as I’d push the wipe pattern for a street engine. Just make sure and check that the rest of the rockers have similar patterns, and if they do not, just juggle lash pad thickness so that they all end up having similar wipe patterns.

 

Take care,

Paul Ruschman

[Drax240z]

Paul, do you guys have a good source for lash pads and rockers? Looking to order a few sets of pads and a new set of rockers... Is Nissan the only choice?

[BRAAP]

Paul, do you guys have a good source for lash pads and rockers? Looking to order a few sets of pads and a new set of rockers... Is Nissan the only choice?

 

 

 

We get our lash pads directly from Nissan/Nissan Motorsports. We use only genuine Nissan L-series rockers as well. The rockers we supply with our cam kits are brand new “NISSAN” Rockers. There are some aftermarket NON Nissan rockers that should be avoided at all cost. Those NON Nissan rockers look similar to the Ford Pinto style rockers and are garbage. They will wipe out a cam in very short order.

 

I have spent many an hour on the phone with Dave Rebello of Rebello racing engines, and both he and I are on the same page in regards to L-series cams and rockers. We both agree that used NISSAN L-series rockers are just fine with new cams even if they are from a different engine, as long as the rockers are in good shape, i.e. no divots or noticeable visual wear. This only applies to NISSAN rockers, not aftermarket rockers. We both have seen some reground Nissan rockers that we would never run our engines, so beware of some reground rockers.

If you plan to reuse used rockers, just buff the wiping surface and the tip surface and you are good to go. Dave even uses used rockers on his full tilt GT race engines and claims ZERO cam/rocker failures! No matter anyone else’s opinion on this subject, the fact that Dave Rebello uses used rockers on his full tilt GT race engines with ZERO failures should be testimony enough!

 

As long as the wiping pattern is checked and there is adequate oil supply to the rocker-cam interface and the rocker wiping surface is in “good” condition, AND the cam is a known good quality core, (typically new Nissan cores or reground NISSAN cores fall into this category, aftermarket cams are hit and miss in regards to durability), you will have no troubles even with big lift cams using really stiff valve springs.

 

FWIW, with all of our cam kits that we sell, we include brand new Nissan Rockers. For my own personal L-series, engines, I just dig through my used rocker stash, (just as Dave Rebello does for his GT race engines, so don’t throw away your old rockers. If they are in good shape, Dave Rebello and myself will take them off your hands…), but for our customers who purchase a cam with their custom Rusch Motorsports L-series cylinder head, we include brand new Nissan Rockers. For our cams, we use Rebello reground NISSAN cams for our cam kits. We use new rockers in our cam kits not because the “new” rockers are better, but because it gives the customer the piece of mind that their rockers are new. For some, that makes all the difference.

 

Hope that helps,

 

Paul Ruschman

Rusch Motorsports

[Drax240z]

Great info Paul, thanks for that. Just one more question, if you were ordering a cross section of lash pads to set up an aftermarket cam, what common sizes would you order?

[slownrusty]

Paul - left you a long PM, hope to hear back from you - hopefully today.

Many thanks - Yasin

[nismofiend]

Honestly I have no idea what im looking at or what you guys are talking about. lol. Reading countless old and new threads only to be left in total confusion is one way to learn. haha

[BRAAP]

Paul - left you a long PM, hope to hear back from you - hopefully today.

Many thanks - Yasin

 

Yasin,

Sorry, there is no PM from you in my inbox. Try E-mailing me…

 

braapZ350@hotmail.com

[BRAAP]

Great info Paul, thanks for that. Just one more question, if you were ordering a cross section of lash pads to set up an aftermarket cam, what common sizes would you order?

 

 

Drax,

If you set up many cams, you may as well just purchase a complete set of the available lash pads as it will expedite cam set up time. If you don’t want to purchase all of them, then for starters, I would get.150-.220 which should get you by for 90% of the street and mild to moderate race cam set ups you will run across. If you need to set up a cam that needs thicker than .220, you can always just snip pieces of .010”, .020” and .030” feeler gauges/shim stock and just stuff those pieces between the lash pad and valve stem itself. Feeler gauges are pretty cheap, under $5 for set of Craftsman, or keep a sharp eye at garage sales.

[slownrusty]

Paul - I hope its OK that I ask two more questions:

1) In regards to the new Rockers I just bought from

MSA based on your reply to Drax. These MSA Rockers

definitely came from Japan as there were wrapped in

that typical Japanese brown paper and had the Kanji

writting on the outside but defintely not a Nissan

Genuine Part - should I return these and get the

genuine ones from Nissan? You mentioned certain

rockers eating the cam after a few months and I

definitely want to avoid those - thats frightening!

 

2) Also should I tighten up my wipe pattern a bit and

not have it so thin on the ends? As you said that the

170 is the limit of what you would recommend running

on a street car? Should I make it a bit "safer" and

run the 180 lash pad based on the wipe pattern?

 

Many many thanks!

Yasin

[BRAAP]

Paul - I hope its OK that I ask two more questions:

1) In regards to the new Rockers I just bought from

MSA based on your reply to Drax. These MSA Rockers

definitely came from Japan as there were wrapped in

that typical Japanese brown paper and had the Kanji

writting on the outside but defintely not a Nissan

Genuine Part - should I return these and get the

genuine ones from Nissan? You mentioned certain

rockers eating the cam after a few months and I

definitely want to avoid those - thats frightening!

 

2) Also should I tighten up my wipe pattern a bit and

not have it so thin on the ends? As you said that the

170 is the limit of what you would recommend running

on a street car? Should I make it a bit "safer" and

run the 180 lash pad based on the wipe pattern?

 

Many many thanks!

Yasin

 

Yasin,

Those rockers sold by MSA should be just fine. MSA buys their rockers from the same supplier that we use, and those “should” be actual Nissan rockers, even though they may not be “bagged” with Nissan part numbers, (though they might be). If they visually resemble Nissan Rockers, you are totally safe and should have no worries. If they resemble the wide and balky Ford Pinto style rockers, those are the bad ones.

 

As for your wipe pattern, no need to adjust. The .170 will be just fine. Truth be told, based on your pics, you could even safely get away with .160, my public mentioning of .170 being the limit was conservative allowing for other factors such as wear, etc. You could theoretically go out to the very edge of the rocker, but that would be getting greedy for pretty much no gain and chance inducing unwanted valve train noise as well.

In short, your .170 lash pads look just fine.

 

HTH

[slownrusty]

Paul - AWESOME!! That is exactly what I was crossing my fingers and hoping you would say. I appreciate the quick reply. These MSA rockers look identical my stock rockers, so then I would say they are the Nissan genuine units except not in OEM Nissan packaging.

 

Thanks for letting me know about my wipe pattern too! I feel confident about completing it. My plan is to wrap up my head this weekend and then order my lash pads through you hopefully by Monday.

 

Have a great weekend - Yasin