Roller rocker arms

Been looking around for rocker arms for an aluminum headed smallblock stroker and was wondering what would be the best choice. Was considering harland sharp but heard they would fatigue fairly quickly on daily drivers so looked up the comp cams ultra pro magnum roller rockers. Anything good or bad about either? One better than the other? Other better options? Thanks, Clay

FWIW I think the new Sharp rockers with the bushings instead of rollers are a great choice for a moderate spring pressure street engine
Gus

I've always heard good things about the sharps untill the other day on here someone said the heat cycles fatigue them quickly. Also only know people running them in race only motors so no street life numbers to compare to.

I'm running the Pro Magnum rockers on a BB and they work great. I had it down after a thousand miles or so and both shafts and rockers look good. I picked them for the same reason... I wanted a high performance rocker without fatigue concerns for extended running.

There are two or three keys to making them work well. First is correct application... they are good to about 350 lb spring pressure over the nose. Too much spring pressure can cause galling of the shafts. For most applications that means they are good up to about .6 lift max. Use with correct rocker shafts. I run them with the Comp supplied shafts so I know they are correctly matched. Also, care in torquing down the shafts is important to keep them round. I used the heavy duty MP aluminum hold downs as insurance instead of the stamped steel versions from Comp. Hughes makes a steel holddown that's supposed to be good also. Running a high zinc oil, as you would for a flat tappet, probably helps also.

It says the pro magnums are true roller rockers so I wouldnt expect them or the shafts to gall if they had proper oil supply?

The Pro Magnums are "true roller" on the tip. The shaft type uses a plain bearing - parent material of the steel rocker on a steel shaft like the OE rocker.

Adding a bronze bushing can increase the capacity of the Pro Magnum rocker... RAS provided this service but seems to have trouble lately. RAS also offered their own steel rocker with bushing. I don't know who else does it.

That's good to know. Thanks for the info

The three most dangerous words are, "I have heard."

No reason in the world to avoid aluminum rockers if you buy decent ones. If you're thinking about putting 200K miles on them then go to steel or cast iron. If you won't drive it 100K before redoing the engine aluminum will get the job done well. I have been on the other side during the aluminum wars because facts are facts, but facts also seem to dictate that a well-made set of aluminum rockers will last longer than you will probably drive your car.

R.

PS: The latest designs are getting away from the needle bearing fulcrums, going to the plain bearing fulcrums like the original stamped rockers.