I have been offered a set of crane gold roller rockers for a very good price(1/2 price).They have been used a little but looking at them they are in very good condition. Is there any real advantages or disadvantages to using them?


jerry

No big time advantage although for high lift cams they are a necessity. They reduce friction and I should think they keep more oil down on the cam.

Crane Golds are nice units, overkill for your UD cam, sure. But if you have to buy long slots anyway. I bought the cheaper Energizers and they've gone 15,000 miles touching 7000 quite a bit with no ill effects.

ONE THING I FORGOT TO ADD!!!! If you do use them, buy a screen kit, or get one from the machine shop. I forget how sbc heads are, but I DEFINTELY recommend you epoxy screens into the oil returns in case a roller unasses itself, the needles, etc.. will stay in the head!!

They're supposed to bring down friction (compared to stock pivot ball), lowering oil temp a little bit and maybe give you a little hp too. That's all up for debate however......

I can say though, I replaced my stock stamped steel 1.5 rockers with crane gold 1.6's, and ALL my valvetrain noise is gone. The XE284 cam is said to be noisey, and I used to agree. Now it's perfectly quiet though......I changed heads too, so maybe it was my old valves and guides makin the moise before, but I'm pretty sure it was all rocker noise. Who cares...the noise is gone! smile.gif

chris

6-8 measurable HP on most SBC's, and slightly lower oil temps. Plus they're typically more rigid and deflect less than stamped steel so you get true valve lift (not critical on most engines.) Also with big valve springs the push rods push through the stamped push rod cup on stamped rockers (been there lots of times.)

All in all, most street engines don't need them, but what the heck, we're hot rodders...right!