This is the height difference I need to make the real pedestal on the left similar to the right.

 

Mochaman, a good machine shop would have no trouble removing metal from the pedestals.  It might be a bit pricy though. A helpful hint, to determine if a metal is hardened use the corner of a good file and see if will "mark" the metal part in question.  If it marks it, it's not hard.
Another thought, what about contacting Comp Cams and see if they have pedestals in different heights.  I'm pretty sure you are not the only one who has had this problem.
Good Luck

@Tmac, the back ot the rocker arm has adjustment cup that adjusts to the length of the Push Rod.

@Pablo I will try to file a little to see if hardened. I did contact CompCam and they do not have different height pedestals. Their Tech Experts agreed that I would have to find someone to mill this down.

@Rudi The U shaped base was needed to keep the pedestals from rotating. Another post I had when I first posted pictures of the pedestals triggered some concern from the group that I had to add them to keep the engine parts lined up. Will have to look into spot faced. If this gets too expensive, I may just have to revert to buying the original stamp steel rocker arms and sell these on ebay.

CompCam now does not list these rocker arms as suitable for earlier heads even though when I did the research 18 months ago they were good. But if you look on Summit and CJPony they still list these as an upgrade for more horsepower.

I just want to get this engine running so I can stuff it in the car and on the road for 2014.

Thank you for the advise.




 

Mochaman wrote:

@Tmac, the back ot the rocker arm has adjustment cup that adjusts to the length of the Push Rod.

@Pablo I will try to file a little to see if hardened. I did contact CompCam and they do not have different height pedestals. Their Tech Experts agreed that I would have to find someone to mill this down.

@Rudi The U shaped base was needed to keep the pedestals from rotating. Another post I had when I first posted pictures of the pedestals triggered some concern from the group that I had to add them to keep the engine parts lined up. Will have to look into spot faced. If this gets too expensive, I may just have to revert to buying the original stamp steel rocker arms and sell these on ebay.

CompCam now does not list these rocker arms as suitable for earlier heads even though when I did the research 18 months ago they were good. But if you look on Summit and CJPony they still list these as an upgrade for more horsepower.

I just want to get this engine running so I can stuff it in the car and on the road for 2014.

Thank you for the advise.




 

 
If you decide to spotface them make sure there is enough thread  depth for the mounting studs. Usually there is enough depth of the hole to allow a bottoming tap to gain a few more turns of the stud.

This was the reply I received from CompCam Technical Staff:

~~You are correct, pushrod length will not affect geometry with that style of rocker arm.

From your post, it looks like a shorter pedestal would be the only way to achieve perfect geometry. We do not sell any shorter pedestals, so you would have to machine the ones you have. Unfortunately, there is not any good rule of thumb for how much to machine off the pedestal, so it will be a "try it and see" procedure.
__________________
Matt Maxwell
Technical Consultant
COMP Performance Group

Looking at your first picture, I would not consider that witness mark to be out of the zone. However it only shows one valve so I do not know what the rest of them look like.

Valve caps are certainly not the answer.  My only experience with them is the are .080 and woud cause you to need pedestal shims and different length pushrods.

Last edited by boomyal (12/22/2013 12:40 AM)

are those heads designed for bolt down rockers or did they have studs before your original arms were lost?

I did have the heads torqued down until I realized they were on backwards. Bolts holes only had the proper threaded insterts on one side. So I have them  turned around and lightly torqued down with the old gaskets until I sort this out. New gaskets will go when I go final torque.

It has beed almost three years since getting the work done, so I am under no illusion the machine will do anything for free.

I did go out and scratch the pedestal metal. the scribe made a decent mark, so they may not be to hardened steel I thought they should be.

I have spot faced the head bosses with a lot of tape to seal everything off and used a piece of 3/4 inch plate with holes to bolt to adjacent bosses then used a magnetic based drill. Did it that way even in the car once. Never had a problem. I did tap all the holes a little deeper.

Mochaman wrote:

I am consulting with CompCam Technicians on this. I posed the Lash Cap suggestion to them. Red351 I appreciate the tip. Never even thought of them. Quick order to Summit should get them here before I go back to work.


~~A lash cap may get you where you need to be. Ours are .080 thick. Part# 621-16.
You may need to shim a bit with the lash cap in place, but it would give you more options.
__________________
Matt Maxwell
Technical Consultant
COMP Performance Group

I didn't think about lash caps causing you to need shims BUT it may cause you to need new pushrods as well.  I used some inexpensive roller rockers on my 5.0.  The machine shop put on lashcaps which I liked because it gave a larger rolling surface for the rockers.  I ended up using shims and longer pushrods to get a proper pattern.



 

I agree with Boom...  What the heck is wrong with the pattern you have.  A roller tip rocker is much more forgiving than a non-roller tip.  Quit worrying and bolt it together and run it.

use a silver Sharpie