A couple of weeks ago I broke a rocker shaft. I just got my new shafts from TA. When I bolt them back on the heads, should I use Blue Locktite to keep them from potentially backing out?
I'd think torque to spec should be more than sufficient but others may have a different opinion/experiences.
I don't see the need at 25-35ft of torque they shouldn't go anywhere. I would clean out the bolt holes. Found a lot of sludge in the bottom could cause torque issues.
There's a hundred products with the Loctite name on the container. Some of them are blue. WHICH "Blue Loctite" do you mean? A quick Amazon search yields: 240 242 243 245 248 But there may be even more in the Loctite catalog. The typical blue threadlocker is 242. I don't expect it's needed, but probably won't hurt--until you disassemble later and have to clean out the hardened residue.
don't run the bolts down one at a time. This will stress the shaft. Put them down relatively even to keep from hurting the shaft. Just my opinion.
When at TDC the passenger side lifters are close to the base circle,only a couple are off and they are partial so passenger side pulls down more evenly without stress,still do it gradually. Drivers side at TDC has some lifters way up on the lobe. Then after pass. side is torqued down. Rotate motor over 90 deg, check lifter locations, and do that side rocker shaft same way.I've seen a lot of broken shafts due to tightening unevenly, you'd get a stress crack without knowing it and eventually the shaft would fail, typically on one of the ends.
I have no good luck at all. When I removed the rocker shaft, I found the corresponding intake push rod was bent. It was so bad, that I couldn’t get it out of the head. In my attempts to remove it, things got worse - it’s now lying in the lifter valley. Oh well, more work. I’ve already made another order to TA Perf for push rods and an intake gasket/valley pan. Maybe I should take up stamp collecting, it might be less frustrating. Here’s a pic of the bent shaft with the new one ready to be reassembled.
Wow, haven't looked at the price of the TA roller rockers since probably the 90's but dat price They are extremely well made and quality but
tell me about it, $900 roller rockers on my Buick 350.... meanwhile I picked up a 2012 6.0LS complete for $400 at the wrecker....
Double what I paid it is a lot really does slow guys down wanting to run this motor as a performance machine. It's too bad cause it has been a good motor and can take a lot of abuse. But if you look at it this way I now have 27 years on this motor with a lot of runs down the 1/4 mile and a bunch of runs on the nitrous. So if a guy was to build this engine to last a long time The First thing to do is get that Entire oiling system upgraded in the block and get the TA cover upgraded for more oiling with adjustable regulator the cost of those rollers will not seem too much. I thought the rollers were a lot back then so go for it just save your money and do it. mine still runs great does not smoke going down the track and fires right up instantly even after sitting a hour no gas needed.
I’m finally getting down to business with my 455. I have the intake manifold off. I didn’t realize until now that it didn’t have the stock steel intake manifold gasket. It had paper gaskets (for lack of a better term) and the modified valley pan. I noticed the paper gaskets block off the heat riser from the head, but one of them appears to be burned through from the heat. Should I use the steel gasket, which doesn’t have a block-off, or get a set of the paper gaskets and go from there? It has an Edelbrock B4B manifold, if that affects what to do. Also, the new stock steel gasket doesn’t have “top” stamped into it. Which way faces up? It’s hard to tell because the gasket isn’t bent to fit in the valley in the box. Feel-Pro and the part number is stamped into it though. I’ll attach a pic of the bent pushrod and of the gaskets that came off of the car.
The front and rear of the fel-Pro gasket have bends that go down-ward. You can block the heat crossover with freeze plugs. The tray you have is from AMP Performance. You won't need the AMP shield if you use the Fel-Pro. Buick offered a steel gasket for the St2 set-up with blocked heat crossovers. Best not to use the rubber end gaskets with the Fel-Pro . Use Right Stuff or equivalent instead.
