T&D roller rocker spacer issue?

[87geeinn]

See embedded video. These are brand new T&D 1:55 units that were run on the engine for a very brief time but engine had to come back out for an unrelated bottom end issue. While checking things over, the spacer on the left side of the assemblies (if rollers facing you) seem to have quite a bit of play. I measured ~.028 on on driver side assembly and ~.032 on passenger sided; same spacer on both sides. Upon removal from heads, the entire assemblies all checked out and still look brand new. With the assemblies unloaded and off the heads, I was about to get approx .030 on both spacers on both assemblies. I called T&D and they gave me specs for all of the individual components which checked out fine.

These are on Champion irons. Valve train was set up by me and was not giving any indication of an issue really. Witness marks from rollers on tips of valves indicate good geometry. I checked for pedestal clearance and rocker to retainer clearance before running of course and had no interference, rubbing, or binding. The units, out of the box, felt good but are also packed with moly grease/lube so any loose tolerances could have been masked by the moly. Pushrods appear centered up in the heads as well. Nothing indicates a problem but T&D said they like to see around 8-10 thou clearance. I know the Harland Sharp units call for ~.008 as well.

Figured while I have the time to check things over, I would get a consensus here and see what others have to say with experience on running T&Ds out of the box. FWIW, I followed the installation instructions to a "T." Again, nothing indicates a problem (yet) but just seems a little off to me. However, I know stock rocker shaft assemblies are forgiving and rather "wobbly" as-is, so maybe this is by design?

Still considering shipping off to T&D to have a look over. Lemme know what y'all think. Thanks.

 

[moenning1]

Interesting, I have some brand gn1 roller rockers for iron heads and for curiosity I just checked to see how much play was in between the spacers and it’s dosent have that much compared to yours in the video as it seems. Course these are new and not installed so I can’t comment on the actual rocker play.

 

[Ktbregal]

Interesting

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Shims?

 

[BEATAV8]

What did T&D say? If they say it's fine I would go with that and not worry.
I have more experience with Harland Sharp rockers and they were a bit tight. I had to move shims around to get things sorted out.

 

[87geeinn]

I spoke with T&D and had them review the video as well. They conferred amongst themselves and came back saying it did indeed look a little loose but acceptable and they extra slack shouldn't cause any issues. They advised to try and move the assembly fore/aft with idea that maybe the assemblies are essentially torqued down and crammed to one side. I find that almost unlikely/impossible since the ARP studs I'm using (which are the same OD as the bolts they supply) do not allow for much, if any, movement.

I think best course of action here is, once I get it all back together, check again for play, measure and order spacers in the required length just to be safe. I've looked and looked at these things and I don't see that I'm missing anything. All of the components check out and nothing else on the heads or rest of the valvetrain looked off.

For general knowledge: the shim washers are .030, the left side spacer (rollers facing you) are 1.620, right side spacer is 1.720, and each rocker is .900