Odd rocker arm wear (DOVE Hi Riser)

[Rory428]

Yesterday I went to check out a buddys complaint of noise from his 64 TBolt clones 427 Hi Riser engine. It has a moderate Bullet solid flat tappet cam , specs call for .018" lash, a quick check revealed several at well over .035", so I went ahead and reset them all, but I was suprised at how much slop was in the rockers, where they fit onto the shafts. You could noticeably twist the rocker arms on the shafts, as if the holes in the rocker arms was either severely oversized or possibly egg shaped. This engine has only seen limited street use, and he has reciepts for the rocker setup being new when the engine was assembled. The rocker setup is a Dove/ Comp Cams package, with the end supports that bolt down into special head bolts, similar to what my 427 has. My rocker arms are blue, with no logo, and really small Allen head adjusting screws, these ones have the Comp Cams logo, and have larger Allen head sizes, later design maybe? My rocker arms fit nicely onto the shafts, over 1/2 of his are very loose and sloppy. Suprisedly, I found no signs of aluminum shavings or debris in the bottom of the heads, I recommended to him cut his oil filter apart and inspect it for debris inside. Has anybody else had similar issues with Dove rocker arms? I know that the Hi Riser rocker stands are shorter than other FE engines, but are the rockers themselves any different? Do Doves use the standard shaft dimensions as factory Ford stuff? I told him if it was me, I would keep the Dove support setup, and replace the rockers with OE Ford, Isky or Crane iron rocker arms, but I am not sure if those would be compatible with the Dove shafts, and Hi Riser heads, as I have no previous experiance with Hi Riser stuff. I was kinda suprised that despite the sloppy rocker arms, the engine still had 75-80 psi of oil pressure cruising at 2500 RPM. Other than hi $$$$ TRD or Jessel stuff, what other rocker setups are available for the Hi Riser heads?

[jayb]

Rory, the Comp/Dove rockers that I've used fit on the stock shafts.  I've heard rumors that Dove sent a series of defective rocker arms to Comp when they were manufacturing for them, and for a time Comp was out of FE rocker arms for this reason.  Now they have their own design, which is different, and of course Dove is no longer making anything. 

I thought that maybe Precision Oil Pumps had a set of stands available for a high riser; that should be all that is required to convert a normal setup to a high riser setup.  Are the stands in your friend's setup still usable?  I agree that going to stock or Isky steel rockers would be a good choice.

[Rory428]

Thanks Jay, I am sure that my buddys Dove Hi Riser stands should be OK to reuse, my concern was that the Dove setup used a different diameter (Like my Ersons do). So you think we should be OK to just replace the rocker arms themselves, assuming the shafts look OK?

[My427stang]

Were the shaft oil holes pointing down? I would say measure shafts and maybe spin the oil pump with a drill to check oiling, but should be no issues with just swapping rockers if you have oil and good shafts

[jayb]

Thanks Jay, I am sure that my buddys Dove Hi Riser stands should be OK to reuse, my concern was that the Dove setup used a different diameter (Like my Ersons do). So you think we should be OK to just replace the rocker arms themselves, assuming the shafts look OK?

That's interesting, I didn't know that the Dove high riser setup used shafts with a different diameter than stock.  I don't think the factory rocker setups did, at least the ones I've seen appear stock.  I think if the shafts look good you should be able to just replace the rockers.

[Jim Comet]

My blue Comp rockers which are not bushed fit stock size shafts. Jim

[Rory428]

That's interesting, I didn't know that the Dove high riser setup used shafts with a different diameter than stock.  I don't think the factory rocker setups did, at least the ones I've seen appear stock.  I think if the shafts look good you should be able to just replace the rockers.

Sorry Jay, I guess my description could have been made more clear. What I meant was that my Erson rockers have  smaller diameter rocker shafts than stock FE shafts. I was not sure if Dove did something like that, but it appears that they are standard sized shafts.