Folks!

So I didn't think this was some crazy ass combo I'm cooking up here, but I've got my W2 heads with extra clearancing done to accept a 3/8" diameter pushrods.

While porting these I had a little "oopsie" and broke through on one pushrod pinch...epoxy fixed that immediate problem, but also robbed me of some pushrode hole room. So much so that I think I have barely enough in there for a 5/16" pushrod.

Anyways, OK, so I figured I would buy a set of 3/8", and 1 (one) extra 5/16" just in case I need it. Since I'm using Harland Sharp rocker arms, I need these to be oil-through pushrods.

Called Trend Performance, we were OK with the 3/8" order but trying to get the 5/16" in 0.108" wall thickness turned into a "no-go"!

Why?

Well, apparently the oil-through option with the lifter end being a ball and rocker end being a cup is "hard to source components for"...ugh??? Is it really? I didn't think this would be such a rare combo!

Suggestions?....I'm thinking of calling all the other places next. These guys are local to me, so I thought I would get my hands on these faster.

Smith brothers

A few pictures would probably help a lot. We may be able to come up with a fix.

The “traditional” method for top end oiling with HS rockers is thru the head/shaft.

With the standard ball type adjuster, there is no way to get the oil from the pushrod into the rocker body.
In that scenario, pushrod oiling would be dead headed at the adjuster.

Ahh, so originally when I was buying these I called HS and specifically asked about what they post on their product page for these, that being:



Their response was: the roller needle bearing setup opens up the passages and if you maintain the factory top-end oil feed, chances are that you might be dropping oil pressure and flooding the top end with too much oil. Basically uncontrolled oil leak!!

They suggested that to avoid this I could go down the path of switching to a pushrod feed and either completely blocking off the stock feed, or limitting it with a plug. I subsequently tapped the head oil feed to accept a plug, which I have drilled 1/16", thus giving me a 0.063" oil feed. I can of course open this up as necessary, or at the very least this gives me some control over how much factory oil should be fed to the rocker arm assembly.

But...that also means that the bulk of the rocker arm adjuster/pusrod oiling has to come from elsewhere, that of course being through direct pushrod oil feed.

Which pix?

Are we talking here my unfortunate break-through on the pushrod hole? (see attached)

I've patched this up, but mostly due to hesitation re: how strong the JB Weld epoxy fix is, I kept it a bit thicker, which is what's eaten up the space.

I'll try to take a photo of that as well, just don't have one handy right now.

I've seen thin wall stainless tubing cut and inserted into the pushrod holes as a fix for grinding a little too far like that. Seen heavily ported old iron heads where all the intake ports where sleeved. Cost of doing business when you want the port openings as wide as they can go.

So, on your set of rockers....... what has been done on them to get the oil from the pushrod to the inside of the rocker?

FWIW, I’ve used quite a few sets of HS rockers on mopars.
I’ve never used pushrod oiling on any of them.

Nothing done to the rocker arms themselves.

In order to still feed the rocker arm shafts, and therefore the rocker arms, I will still use the factory oil feed passage, but with a much smaller openning.

Take a look at the attached photos, they show the tapped oil passage in the rocker arm shaft stand, along with a brass plug installed. This way I can adjust the amount of factory oil feed.

Quite honestly I will probably run it nearly stock size first and watch the oil pressure. If it feels like there is some low pressure issue I will than put in a bigger restrictor in place (so plug with a smaller opening).

However...having said that, thank you for sharing your experience because that means I could in fact run a standard 5/16" pushrod on that one lifter and basically rely on factory oiling.

So a couple of pics of the epoxy fix.

The pics hardly tell the story here as they don't seem to show all that much of a difference in the diameter of the pushrod hole, but it's there. With my 5/16" pushrod checker and the rocker arm centered over the valve stem I am maybe 0.005-0.010" away from that epoxy...so moving to a 3/8" pushrod I am going to need about 0.030" extra room (5/16" is using 0.152" distance from the center of the pushrod, while 3/8" needs 0.188").

Really, the 3/8" pushords are supposed to be ready by mid-week...and that'll ultimately tell the story.

I have never needed to restrict the oiling to the rockers on a Mopar and never pushrod oiled a shaft rocker. I've run W2s and W5s for decades without issue. I would put it together with non oil through 3/8" push rods and see what happens.

I will say the same, never used oil through pushrods or restrictors. And even use the thickest walled 5/16 push rods with schubeck lifters on cheap comp or K motion springs (depending on the cam) and never had an issue shifting up to 7500. The only thing ive questioned at times is when I use grooved cam bearings then buy a cam thats also grooved.

Try not to over think some things.

So if you are running pushrod oiling, I am assuming you have bushed the lifter bores?

Secondly, when did Harland Sharp start doing rockers that accept pushrod oiling? I asked about it years ago and was asked how was I planning on getting the oil past the adjuster.

No, I did not. I wish I could have, but no local shops that had this capability.


These rockers are nothing special, same old part as best as I can tell. There are rocker arm adjusters however (non HS ones) that do have an internal passage that will channel the pushrod oil feed into the body of the rocker through the drilled passage. Basically, the adjuster allows the reverse of the stock Mopar SB feed.

I did not upgrade to these, do recall they were somewhat pricey!

Look, I am thrilled to hear from many folks on here that no one had ran into issues with these rocker arms and stock oiling provisions. I went with the original remarks that HS provided and which still show on their site. My understanding is that the space created between the rocker arm shaft and the rocker body due to the sizing of the needle bearings is what opens up a bit more clearance (as compared to the non-needle bearing setups) and which causes a bit of oil leak here.

It felt like a good option to take to try to control that (through the adjustable orifice plug on the head) and by switching to the pushrod oil through approach.

I am running a deep oil pan and HV oil pump, so my expectation is that there should be plenty of oil supply to the top end.

I've been using a .039 oil restrictor size in all my BB build with full time rocker arm shaft oiling with Harland Sharp rockers and solid roller cam and valve springs on both sides works great