Thanks Gary for your kind words, it's much appreciated. These "Rockers" are from years of R&D. Many are concerned about the ratio. Who CARES what it is as long as it has been proven to work!!!!! Another added advantage unknown at the time of design is that they are a VARIABLE RATIO. This means that if you are having V/P clearance issue problems by a small amount you can go to slightly shorter pushrods. Alright, for all who have asked, they start out at 1.9 & can go as low as 1.65 by using a shorter pushrod. Geometery is not affected because the "Rockers" are on stands with a shaft, this stays constant using original stands. Almost all of the 1st. sets are gone. A 2nd. run of 50 sets will be started when there are enough deposits to warrant another run, at least 35. I made a gentleman's agreement not to order less than 50 sets at a time. I don't now, nor have I ever had that kind of cash laying around to try & keep parts in stock that may or may not sell. I also, like many here, have a family to feed a household to run & a business that takes away much time. This project has taken me away from my main business many times for many reasons. There's no way to count the $$$$$$ lost just by this alone. This has been done because of a passion & a desire to try & improve something, not as a $$$$ making endevor as explained above in a former post. The "Rockers" that are left are $853.00. The shafts I am having made are thicker walled as explained above in another post & I modify them from there are $100.00 pair. If all the nec. GOOD parts are sent I will also assemble them & fit each "Rocker" to the shafts to be used if "Rockers & Shafts" are purchased from me. I won't charge anything for this at this time (maybe even into the future, for me this is fun) as my main concern is getting them out to the masses. For a few recent pictures you can go to ebay & search for listing number 280062361309. Allen put up 5 pictures. There will be more pictures in the Feb. issue (hopefully) of Rodder's Journal. There will also be pictures at a newly forming website (not done yet) nailheadbuickworld.com
Took my Riv (I think I will call her Angry Agnes)down to Ocean Pkwy on Christmas Eve morning with my step son Matt. Left the 200lbs of crap I carry to go to car shows from the trunk in the driveway (looked like a yard sale for God sakes) . Gave the kid my stop watch and layed out .25 miles on the odometer. First run- put the car in drive mashed the gas from a dead stop and pulled a 16.8 Second run- Brought the tach up to 2500 released the brake left 100' of rubber ran throughthe gears and BOGGED in second (Tom I'll be calling after the New Year, figured I'd give you a weeks rest) ran 16.0 Third run Brought the tach to 3000 left about the same 100' of rubber and shifted into second, still had some bogging (more like the spark was breaking up) ran 15.4 Yeah I know these are estimates ( I know we aint off by more than .5 +/- seconds) My feeling is with the rebuild and a few tweeks to the ignition system my 14.0 will definitely be achieved.. I might have to change it to 13.5, but lets walk before we run. As i work on Agnes I'll keep ya'all posted...Happy New year! :beer
just recieved my rollers on monday:grin: :grin: :grin: now I've got to wait for this damn cold front to pass before i'm brave enough to put them on :af: Thanks Tom! I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again shortly p Wes
Tom's rocker Tom, Where do you have these listed? Price? Where are you located in the Northeast? thx, PK
Yesterday I got home from work about 3, and decided to take advantage of the nice weather. I pulled out the old fuel pump (which Tom and I thought migh be the problem with the bog, being the car seemed to be way lean during the power band in 2nd gear and starving for fuel - inertia pushing the fuel to the rear and the pump not strong enough to pull the fuel fast enough to the guzzling motor) Well, Agnes performed damn good. I took her to my favorite testing groung - Ocean Pkwy. I did 4 passes no bog,, she even chirped 2nd two times for me. Gotta love Angry Agnes - So kids as I said in previous posts, with the exception of throwing a supercharger or nitrous on the car (make sure you have forged pistons before you do that) Toms Roller Rockers are the best bang in performance for the buck - Thanks again Tom for loving the Hobby as much as us other car nuts and putting in all the effort without the monitary pay back. :beer But it was obvious Agnes was pissed off I was beating on her all last night. :3gears: - This afternoon I decided to change out my Thermostat (easy job right - NOT!) ou: Snapped both water neck bolts, Probably never been removed in 43 years. I drilled them out so far, I will tap the holes next weekend. Keep ya'all posted.
Had to drill the holes out 2 sizes bigger to 3/8 and tap 7/16 threads in them, but thanks to RTV Blue all sealed up nice and Agnes is running fine now. :TU: I have an MSD Distributor I won from Maddog on Ebay, along with a MSD 6A. I'll put them in soon. Can't wait for winter to be over.
pretty... that's how mine look right now also.. sitting on the bench waiting for the earth to warm up again
Tom's roller rockers are really works of art and are a big difference than the stock rocker arms. Tom has been working on these rocker arms for years and has perfected them to what you see today. If I owned a Nailhead,I would definately upgrade to these rocker arms. They make the stock rocker arms look prehistoric in comparision.
well i finfished putting my roller rockers on and did a test dirve on my '64 the other day... and even at 6500ft of elevation, I felt a conciderable difference! here's an example (i know it's not as cool as lifting the front tires, but it's still pretty neat): there's a "spot" up here that everyone judges their car's performance by... it's from a stopsign to a 55mph sign, it's not very far so if you're doing 55 by the 55sign, you're doing pretty good.. WELL, BEFORE the rocker install, my rivi, WITH loading the converter and no tire spin, would make about 50mph by the sign.. AFTER the install, with loading the converter a little, and right rear tire spinning for the first few feet (no posi) it was consistantly making it to 60mph by the sign, wich is prettty damn good concidering my car is pretty well optioned and is probably well over 4500 lbs with a 3.07 gear. and remember 6,500ft of elevation These things are AWSOME!!! now everyone else should stop procrastinating and put theirs on! LETS HEAR SOME MORE RESULTS!!! I might even be giving Tom a deposit for another set:bglasses: :3gears: wes
now everyone else should stop procrastinating and put theirs on! LETS HEAR SOME MORE RESULTS!!! Hey, I resemble that remark! I need to stop procrastinating !
Y'all better come up w/ $ for the next run or you'll be missing out. Just sent my balance and after -what 3 years? And I get the last set. NA,na,na,nap
Another run of 50 sets will be forthcoming once 35 deposits are received. The sooner this happens the sooner they can be made. All the tooling & holding fixtures are already made. It would then be a matter of just scheduling the time for the set-up on the machinery. Let's get this A Rockin' & A Rollin'. A check, money order or any other secure payment in U.S. funds in the amount of $450.00 & mailed to: Tom Telesco C/O Classic & Muscle Automotive 465 Glenbrook Rd. Stamford, Ct. 06906-1820 Tell everyone you know who may be interested. We now have two individuals who never knew me from Adam relate their experiences. So it's not just myself quoting facts for the inquiring, doubting, can't be posssible thinkers. IT IS POSSIBLE!!!!!! You all have no idea how this makes me feel after over a total of 7 years. The "NailHead" has not been in production for over 40 years & some nutcase comes out with a Hi-Performance part that actually works & for the most part is a bolt-on. How many bolton parts are actually bolt-on???? 50 plus or minus HorsePower is a REALITY!!!!!!! with a bolton part & will take at a good afternoon or at most week-end to install. I don't see any checks in the Mail Box. Thanks to everyone that has trusted me & purchased this 1st. run of 50 sets. If anyone has any problems AT ALL!!!!! I want to know about it. I stand behind what I've designed & sell. If you bought a set & have changed your mind or things have changed & you won't be using them, send them back & I will refund your $$$$$$$, there are others waiting who will be using them & will jump at the chance. Or you could put them on E-Bay & sell them for more than you originally paid like Alan did. Time to go to work, everyone have a NICE DAY!!!!!!! Tom Telesco
It has been a while for this thread but I finnaly put Tom's roller tip rockers on the motor this week. I can NOT stress enough how much more lift this rickers will give you on whatever cam you are running. After a couple of days trying to figure out what was causing the 'popping' in the exhaust. Keep in mind that I had the intake off for 'porting', the heads were off and replaced by 'ported' pieces, the carbs were rebuilt, etc... After checking all of the ignition and fuel items, I decided to perform a compression test. Well now there is the culprit, cyl #3 shows no compression. After a good conversation with Tom (more than willing to help find cause of issue) I found that the valve springs are 'binding' meaning that the rockers are pushing the valve springs down until they are fully colapsed, but the cam has more travel left in it. I am running an old Engle solid .480" lift(advertised). With stock 'export' rockers actual lift is more like .420-.430" but with the roller rockers, the lift is more like .530-.540(estimated, have not actually measured yet) The moral of this long winded rant is: a) READ the instructions-I mean top of Page two(maybe Tom should put this on the top of every page for us thick headed mechnicians) b) these rockers REALLY make some big changes, this is very good but make sure to acount for it on assembly. I did turn the motor over by hand with a short ratchet, I thought I would have felt something binding, obviously I was wrong-MEASURE your engine-take nothing for granted. After the conversation tonight with Tom, I called a friend who does some machine work for me and we are planning on installing Chevy valves to help alleviate the concer-longer stems=more spring travel before coil bind(thanks Tom for this info) I will keep posted when this thing gets on the road, now I just need to save up a little $$ for the valves, retainers, keppers etc...
If I recall correctly, Tom's roller rockers have a variable ratio depending on exactly how far out the adjustable tip is in/out. And by combining this feature with a set of adjustable pushrods, you can actually change the maximum ratio (or valve lift)! Is that an option for you, or are you already at the limit of adjustability? The chev valve option does seem to have more benefits....I should consider that for my present build. P.S. Thanks for sharing all this cool info lately. you guys rock!:beers2:
Tom, any idea when the factory is sending out the replacements for the first batch? Just wondering....:TU:
Soon, I hope Jason. Along with that I've gone out on a limb to have another 50 sets made. It takes the same amount of time. It's being fit on the schedule for machine time. Tom T.
