rocker arm hardning

[whc]

am going to install a cam and 416 piston while reseaching I was on the fst web site and they where talking about rocker arm wear problems when you start modifying the engine due to excessive heat and more pressure when using higher lift cams and stiffer springs. they offer a hardning service. anyone had problems with stocks arms. we have had problems with modded 300exs we thought it was the cam causing the problems, know I am wondering if it was the rockers. any thoughts, thanks Bill

[NacsMXer]

You should only use hard welded rocker arms in conjunction with hard welded camshafts. In other words the hardness of the metal needs to be matched to each other to prevent premature wear. This depends on what cam you use and will be specified by the cam manufacturer.

If you just do one or the other you will trash the cam or rockers. Case in point: I was once young and dumb and installed a Web cam with the stock rockers. I thought it was a "drop in" cam, but it was actually a hard welded cam that required hardened rockers. I ended up destroying the stock rockers.

[whc]

interesting, I will have to check out the hot cams, this is the brand i was considering. but if i use a 400xr cam then I should be able to run stick rockers. thanks bill

[CarGuy7a]

Originally posted by whc
interesting, I will have to check out the hot cams, this is the brand i was considering. but if i use a 400xr cam then I should be able to run stick rockers. thanks bill

Yeah hotcams brand cams you can use stock rockers and springs. Hotcams don't use stock cams for their cams, I believe they cast a new entire cam so there's no reason for hardened rockers.

Now like NacsMXer said the webcams are hardwelded. What that means is they take a stock 400EX cam and weld on the lobes adding material to them so they can put their custom grind on them. That's the reason why they require you to send in your stock cam for a core charge.

I'm running a Stage 1 Hot Cams and I've not had one single problem out of it.

[whc]

car guy, how did you like the performance gains, was there a noticable improvement, how was the low end effected???? thanks Bill