Erson FE rocker arms

[Jim Harding]

Anyone here running these rockers in their FE motor? With Edelbrock heads too maybe? I have a question or two I need answers to before I purchase these over some other offerings out there.
Just 2400 miles on my engine, and I just had the second Dove rocker break off the shaft..... gotta install something better to regain some confidence in that motor. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting on the side of the road (with your wife saying she'll never ride in this &*%%#%&^* car again) for a flat bed tow truck to drag your sorry butt home

[Tony Radford]

Jim, I'm running Erson roller rockers in my Windsor stroker and have been for about 15K miles. What I particularly like about them is the fact that they hold and adjustment very well. I've got a solid flat tappet cam and after 4K miles, they requre "touching up" only.

[Brent]

Tony's 351W rockers are not shaft rockers like yours are. Completely different.
I had 2 of the Dove rockers break on my FE and I know Rick Bagley replaced his too due to breakage. They are (in my humble opinion) junk. I would switch to Erson, Comp, Crane, etc. and get rid of the Dove quickly.

Brent

[Slidewinder]

Jim, if you talk to Robert Pond, he will tell you Erson is the way to go....that's all he uses in the aluminum 427 S/Os he builds (using his own aluminum 427 S/O "Pond" block) and he is an active drag racer who currently holds the NHRA record hix class with his 67 Ford Fairlane.

If it holds up under drag racing conditions, it should work fine for the street (no matter how heavy footed you are).

[Jim Harding]

Tony's 351W rockers are not shaft rockers like yours are. Completely different.
I had 2 of the Dove rockers break on my FE and I know Rick Bagley replaced his too due to breakage. They are (in my humble opinion) junk. I would switch to Erson, Comp, Crane, etc. and get rid of the Dove quickly.

Brent

Brent, did yours or Ricks break off at an end stand? The first was #4 exhaust and the second was #5 exhaust. Can't put my finger on to what went wrong. Doesn't 'look' like coil bind. Visual check at full lift reveals ample space between the coils and no contact between the retainer and the guide. I know that this is not the way to determine coil bind, but I'd venture it's 95% accurate anyhow. End stands have been the down side to FE motors since number one came out of the mold. Hate to blame it on SA's end stands, but can't find a common denominator as to what caused the failures. Maybe just junk rockers like you said.
I heard back from Robb at RobbMc Performance.... who I understand designed the Erson set up. Got most of my answers from the "horses mouth" so to speak. He said to check to see if the top of the push rod 'cup' is making contact with the rocker arm body (not just the adjustment ball). If the push rods are too long, (moving the adjusting ball too close to the rocker when adjusting lash) will cause the top of the push rod to hit the rocker arm and eventually break it. If that's my issue, I'll probably need new push rods anyhow with the new Erson set up.

Tony, are you using the SA/Dove setup? Maybe my solid roller, mega lift cam is just too ruff on them.

[Naumoff]

Jim,
I am using the SA Dove rocker arm set up but I have all new pushrods since Samakow Racing Engines rebuilt my engine.
We notice that some of the rockers were struck by the pushrod and there was less than 1500miles on the engine.
Your pushrod might be to long.

After I save up some money I will replace my rocker arm assembly.

[rosco]

I'm running the Pond combination with Ersons... So far (with dyno pulls) no problems... (knock on wood!)

Gino

[Naumoff]

Damn Jim, Sorry to hear of your troubles.
They are the one things on my engine I haven't had troubles with. Now I'm worried.