440 Source roller rockers

Has anyone used 440 Source roller rockers? Have to buy a set and someone had mentioned these to me and I don’t know anyone using them. Have to buy them for Edelbrock heads I have because they require them. Thsnks

I believe the 440 source roller rockers still use needle bearings on the main shaft which can be bad news. Some have posted stories of the needle bearings letting go sending needles through the engine and trashing the rocker shafts. Other rockers use a bushing instead. Yes I know harland sharps use needle bearings but I believe they are a caged bearing.

They are not reliable

The best cheap rocker is the Stainless PRW and they leave a LOT to be desired
The studs sent with them should go right in the trash use bolts --and it takes a half a day to get the spacing correct where you have roller near centered over valve tip and push rod not rubbing--they are not great but
they will stay in there and run a while on a street unit

There are NO decent rockers for decent price

The Mancini units which are not needle bearing are great except they have a china grade adjuster that you have to be careful with If these had decent quality adjusters they would be good

Harlands are your best bet but they have soared in price and are for a serious build

Just a damn shame we can't get decent rockers for under $400 a set--shoot ...make that $350
I get wonderful quality for Fords or Chevys for around $235 that will stand race roller pressures
It is a real crime!1

the Mancinis could be the answer if they would up the adjuster quality and to be fair I have not bought a set in a long while so ...maybe they have

Do not use them.

If it were me I would get Crane or Hughes.

Call Mike at B3 racing engines and let him help you.


And no, he doesn't pay me, nor do I get kickbacks from him (because if I did, I had enough money to go to some tropical island where there is no internet).

What heads?

Edelbrock RPM 84cc

I've the stamped HD rockers on my Edelbrock RPM's for 10+years. SSH-44 cam, no problems.

To bad you missed Todd’s @ Competition Wedge group buy on Harlan Sharp rockers. Use them, enjoy them, and still have something of value to sale.

They are made of the proper alloy and heat treat. The draw back is the needle bearings. Don't use on anything but low spring pressure street motor.

Best option for the money IMHO.
Not a place to cut corners.

Edelbrock heads do not require special rocker arms. You can use factory rocker arms with a mild flat tappet cam. For a fairly mild engine the next step up from factory stuff would be a set of nodular rocker arms. They are harder to find these days but sometimes you can round up a set of Crane or Isky nodulars. Next up from them would probably be the Comp steel rockers or perhaps the Mancini aluminum ones. Hughes makes a decent mid-price set and then you start to pay more for the Harland and T&D and stuff like that.

Do not buy them. I had the adjuster bolts break off of 4 of them and they were not to tight. One broke off after valve lash was set with the valve cover off. That was a new set last year.

I use them on all my wedge builds....Been racing my junk with them since 2012...Tore up some racing. I am learning to leave a little wiggle room with the shims....Other than that...good to go.

I have since bought a set of T&D's for mine, but out of all the valve train parts that failed on my engine the 440 source rockers still look like new after 4300 HARD miles, oh well they are in the trash now. valve springs 155 seat,390 open

The mancini rockers are now made by Harland Sharp. Nice rockers for the price.

I hope your running a fine screen pick up or inline oil filter to catch those needle bearings before they stop your oil pump

Yes, Hughes are an awesome rocker.

If they all failed, they would not still be sold.
The idea is "will the ones that I buy fail?" and the answer is "we don't know".
Considering the damage (needles loose in the head may break everything, even if they don't reach the sump): how good are your nerves?

I dont run BB stuff but if the big problem
seems to be the adjusters you can buy a quality
set of adjusters from a few different places.. as
for the needles I run a screen in the valley
and up the sides so nothing gets past.. I run
TDs on all my junk.. this is just a idea if you
wanted to try it

I bought a set of the stainless ones about 10 years ago that had heat treating issues with the adjusters . When the adjusters go "tink" and fall inside of your new motor, it's a very bad feeling .

I've been running them on 9.5:1 440 with a mild hydraulic cam running 7.80s in the 1/8 mile (mid-12 second car?) for the last six years. A few thousand street miles and 120 passes.

look at the mancini rockers made by HS - they are bushed and a real good solution for a street - strip car - the 440source rockeres have been improved but - its a gamble with any big spring pressure

I'd use stock 60yr old rockers before I ran 440 source in my valve train. I've read over a half dozen stories of them being sub par. I've also seen enough valves being dropped because of a rocker arm failure to prevent me from going cheap.

My Hughes non cryo 1.6s have made probably just under 1000 passes pushing on 420lb springs up to 7k. Theyve proven worthy to put in my next BB build. Plus his customer service has earned my return business.

I had the same problem. Comp adjusters solved that. Roller tips gave up next. If I could get the rollers replaced I'd put them back on.

Kevin

Not that there the same brand but, I had issues with proform rockers which I think are in the same class as the 440 source rockers. I had a roller tip of one crack off which caused me to have to take things apart to find all of the pieces.

After all the negative threads and stories of these types of rockers, I decided no more. I can't remember ever hearing any bad stories about the old ductile iron rockers so; I bought a set of used Isky's and sent them to Rocker Arms Unlimited (formally RAS) and had them bushed and checked out. I've had no issues since but, time will tell.

For a combo that is not wild, I don't think I'll ever use anything else. FYI- I've seen over the past few years that Crane is again making their ductile iron rocker arms; check them out.

I had 440 source 1.6 rockers on dads motor, solid cam ran to 6500rpm, brad penn 20-50 oil, 155 on seat 380lb open. Had a couple hundred street miles and a few passes at the track. Upon Tare down to change a few things I found the roller bearings started to gouge into the shafts.
Changed to a .680 solid roller and Hughes rockers. Maybe csk had better luck than us but on a mild cam they would probably be fine, I’ll never use them again though. I’d rather use ductile rockers as I’ve beat a set of those to death and they are still perfect.

If you do use them check the clearance of underside of the rocker as they made contact on the 1.55 diameter retainers so slight grinding was needed

Too bad the ductiles are getting tougher to find for any sort of a decent price these days.

What sort of cam are you running? If it’s a solid roller, don’t skimp on any valvetrain gear. If it’s a flat tappet cam with mild spring pressures, most rockers will survive, but I agree with others that in general needle bearings should be avoided. There’s literally no advantage and the potential for disaster can’t be ignored. I’ve been running a set of bronze bushed stainless PRW/ProComp rockers on my solid cam 451 for nearly a decade. I typically do an adjustment and look them over closely each spring; so far so good. I’ve had them off the shafts a couple of times in the last few years for various reasons; shafts look great.

I have the Mancini rockers, they're a pretty nice rocker for the money I guess. The adjusters I have not had a problem with, not sure if they've changed them or I have the china ones, but they don't seem like total junk to me, I bought mine in 2013.