I have recently bought a motor and c-6 teans from a local college engine building clas( got it for what they had in it for parts no charge for machine work)and it's a 69 429 block with DOVE heads, and I am wanting to put a set of roller rocher arms on it and wondered if someone could tell me if it is a bolt on project or is there machining involved,and would they fit on a set of Edelbrock RPM heads or Ford motorsports heads if I were to buy them in the future. The engine dyno's right at 500hp and little more on torque,and the c-6 has a shift kit and 3000 TCI Convertor,and I will be putting it in a '66 F-100. Right now I have it in my extra parts truck and you have to have yoour heart right one you stand on it, as a matter of fact I spun the 32-14 slick of the rim yesterday. I know now why they put screws in rim!! Thanks for any info!!

 

Harland Sharp and other roller rockers will bolt right on to the DOVE heads. I'd sugget you go to hardened push rods and guide plates with the rockers.

What kind of cam did they put in it? Those engines were stock rated at 365hp (Thunderjet) with old factory gross hp ratings.

 

Both comp cam and crane make rockers for these heads you will need non positive screw in studs and guide plates as well as hardened push rods

 

I have put roller rockers on two motors using these heads.To get the geometry of the rocker arm at the correct angle I had to remove 200thousands from the area that the stud screws into.This just happens to be the thickness of the guideplates.I didn't do this at first on the first motor and the valve guides didn't last long at all because the valve was pushing against the outside of the guide.You also need to check the pushrod length.I used Crane rockers and hardend TrickFlow pushrods on both motors.There is an illustration of this in the tech section in the Ford Motorsports catalog.

Dennis

 

hey Dennis did you use the old positive stop studs or after market studs because the comp cam studs I am using are threaded down futher than the factory studs so I think that will compensate for the extra height of the guide plate I have been running this comibination for about two years now and I have not noticed any problems

 

I used aftermarket studs and Ford Motorsports guideplates.I could never get the roller to travel the full valve stem before I did this.It always just rode on the outside edge of the stem.Using a pushrod length checker,when you got the length so the roller was running on the stem right the rocker was on the shoulder of the stud,so the stud needed to be lower.This is also when I found the illustration in the Ford catalog.So I tried it with the guideplate removed and it worked,so I did the machining on the heads.The roller should travel the full face of the valve stem. With the valve closed it should be on the inside and travel to the outside as the valve is fully open and should be in the center at half lift.

Dennis

TOO many to list

 

thanks for the info dennis i will check this out.I am pulling the engine apart to get it ready for propane

 

Dennis,

Thanks for posting the information. It really helps me out as well! Which studs did you use?

John

 

I don't know what brand the studs were. The rockers were for BB chevy and were 1.7 ratio and BB ford are 1.73.I really don't think that would make much difference but have always wondered if it did.

Dennis

 

well dennis it appears you are on to something i yanked my heads off and my guides are starting to wear in a manner i would call premature I also used big block c rockers

 

I too had the rocker problem. Had my heads machined so I could use pedestal rockers, BB chevy. Tried regular BB rockers and they would hit, so I switched to Roller tip and guide plates, these had a tendency to slide forward and put all the wear on the outside tip of the valve. Went to Comp cam roller rockers, guide plates and hardened push rods. Had to get a different length pushrod to get the geometry right. In the BB Ford build book, by Ghinal? there is a brief mention of the rockers and the pushrod length they needed to get the geometry correct.



Dennis
55F100 w/429

 

 

I spoke to a Harland Sharp tech today and he said that they have a new design for the early BB Ford heads, part #6002-173 instead of #4005. They make them for just this reason. He couldnt tell me which year casting needed them, but definately "dove" castings. I dont know if other manufacturers have found this out or not.

Nathan