Since I've never really trusted those plastic rocker type pushrod checkers, I tried to use the marker method with stamped rockers. I havent been able to get a witness mark thats even close to being visable.

Does anyone know if there's another way to figure out the contact pattern on the valve stem? The plastic jig says the pushrods are .100 too long, but with my old roller tip rockers, the wear pattern was perfect.

So that leads to my next question...is +/- .100 that big of a deal with stock style stamped rockers. I know they are typically pretty forgiving.

TIA - Scot

if you've got regular valve springs on there it'll usually make a mark on the top of the valve after a couple full cycles of the engine. I use light checking springs during build, it won't mark the magic marker stuff with those. There's another way too, especially useful with normal type street cams. dry the lifter tip and the top of the valve, put it back together, adjust. then turn the engine till the valve is at half lift. you need a solid lifter or a pumped up hydraulic. I have a spare pair of solid lifters for most popular engines. anyway, turn it to half lift and carefully examine the tip relationship. I use a small flashlight from the back side to make it easier to see. It needs to be somewhere near the center of the valve. run it to full lift and then to closed, looking closely at both points to make sure it's not riding off the edge of the valve tip. This is also a good time to check carefully for clearance between the retainer and the bottom of the rocker.

I'm not saying this is good enough if you're running some .800 lift deal, but you can get a pretty good idea on most street engines. On a SBC, I look at #1 exhaust first, then pull it to get a better view of #1 intake.

BTW, for me the breaking point is .050 on normal engines. if it's less than 50 long or short I blow it off. .100 I would fix.

This might sound alittle off the wall but what if you cleaned off the retainer and valve tip with brake clean to get rid any oil and put a piece of masking tape across the retainer then put alittle oil on the rocker tip then put it on and cranked the engine over to get a wear pattern. Masking tape has a texture to it and the rocker would flatten the texture where it made contact. I'm not sure how to compensate for the tape thickness though.
I used a red felt tip marker when I did mine and had no problem getting a mark on the valve tip with roller rockers.

thinking outside the box a little there, ricks_67? good thinking.

Thanks Tom,
took me awhile to think that one out. I wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth a try.

use cigeritte paper if rocker goes off edge of valve it will tear