Hello: Can anyone tell me if there is an adjustable rocker arm set up for a Fe(390) with hydrolic lifters. I would prefer stock aka factory parts, but I'm not dead set against aftermarket, I am looking at stock performance with 1970 F250 camper special.
Thanks in advance

 

I have seen them on e-bay.

 

Went out to the garage and found the box mine came in. These are cast similer to the originals and less exspensive than aluminum. ( wolverine #RA 5901 ) Wolverine Osseo Michigan maker of Blue Racer cams. Thats all thats on the box.

 

Thanks I'll check them out. What did you do about pushrods?

 

For factory parts you will be looking for early 60's that had stock solid lifters. Off the top of my head it will be 60-64 HP 352's,390's,& 406's that could have had factory solid lifter cams.
You will need the complete shaft assemblies and push rods to go with them. The lifter end is the same a most pushrods, but the rocker end has a cup where the adjustable rocker (ball) pivots.
Ebay and car swaps are the best places to find old school parts.
Hope this helps

 

Solids vs. hydraulics info here, not sure it's 100%, like anything else...

FE Engine Camshaft Specifications

Going back to the original question--why would you need adjustables with a hydraulic lifter? If the head or block or both have been surfaced, get new pushrods in the proper length. Just a thought....

 

It's geting thr right length that has me concerned. The pushrod checker/magic marker seems to be for roller tiped rockes and I have stock rockers. So at this point i.m still getting and education on these FE's. Thank you for the link there is some useful info there

 

having the wrong sized pushrods and trying to take up the slack with adjustable rockers is going to leave you unhappy.

 

Thanks for that thought, I was thinking that one could back the adjuster up a bit perhaps and thereby come up with an overall correct length, and if I went with adjustable rockers I'd have to find new pushrods as the adjustables use cup and ball tip, It seems that I think I have it sorted out and then a new piece of info comes into play.
Wish me luck

 

What are you trying to compensate for, why are your pushrods the wrong length? The Ford Muscle Parts book had addressed the problem of milling heads .030 to raise compression, the fix for the rockers was to put a .030 washer under the pedestals when attaching the shaft assemblies.

 

I am also curious as to why you need new pushrod length. Heads recently rebuilt? New cam? The only real reason for running adjustable rockers with hydraulic lifters is for the slight benefit in ratio, 1.76 vs 1.73. So you get a little more lift from the cam. Or if someone rebuilt the heads poorly there could be variances in installed height of the valve tips and even with correct pushrod length you could end up with slight differences in clearances from valve to valve and you could use the adjustables to dial them in but this isn't really the right way to do it.

You should be able to find the stock adjustables pretty easily on Ebay, Craigslist, or the other FE forum classifieds. But lets figure out what's going on first.

A pushrod checker is really easy to make. Cut an inch out of a push rod and tap threads in the center. Then use ready rod to connect the two halves, and voila you have a push rod length checker. I use two nuts on the ready rod to lock it in place once the length is set while I measure it.

 

I got my adjustable rockers and push rods from Pops Performance. They were installed on my 390 with stock heads and a 280 H cam.
They do give you a higher ratio. Seem to working well on my truck. They were on sale at the time for about the same price as the non-adjustables.

 

I don't know if Pops is out of business or not. Apparently their phones have been disconnected. Lot's of bad stories about Pops with very few good ones. Do a search on the other FE forum, or even the brand X forums, and find out just how many fans they have.

 

I ordered a adjustable set of rocker arms from Pop's about a year ago. Set came minus 1 rocker arm. They were quick to send me the rocker arm but makes you wonder. I have yet to fire the motor but the assemblies looked very nice.

 

I just called the phone number for Pops and it was indeed disconnected. The website is still up although not all the pics showed for me. For buying parts from them as long as you know what your getting they have been ok on parts. Guys have been very happy with the cast iron shorty headers they repopped. It was some of the engine builds (some high end stuff too) that I heard was very poorly done. But have also heard of a few good ones people were happy with. So no idea really myself. One builder I know of has met him a few times and they both used the same machine shop for their work. I see Pops has a set of stock adjustable rocker assys for $299 complete. Not a bad deal and pretty sure the same brands the chain stores sell. Guess time will tell if he's out for good.