Heavy duty rockers?

[Suspence]

Anyone running them? Installing a pair right now on mine with a 272 regrind and Oversized eccentrics...

[Brandon12V]

I hope you mean a set and not a pair, lol. I haven't had much drive time on mine yet but they seem to be holding up quite nicely with 7k revs on a 272 billet cam. my valve springs were within tolerance so I reused them. I suggest you have yours tested prior to re-installation.

[lateracer]

Are you running the IE's or something else?

Have thought about getting a set one $$ allows.

[Suspence]

I have a set lol :)

The are IE.

[TimR]

Susposidly the best?? set up is the stock BMW and have them "shot peined" at a Hot Rod Shop, this is a hardening prosess thats been arround a long time, as rocker arms seem to be a weak link in the motor I'd get it done.

[lateracer]

Shot peening does improve the strength of the arms and cryo treatment (liquid nitrogen) does even more than shot peening, but neither of these treatments really addresses the weak points that come from the factory. The biggest problems are the casting flaws/slag and the thin arms on the side that holds the eccentric.


Sanding/polishing off the casting marks and using rocker arms from later models, which are a little thicker in the weakest point compared to the early style arms is your best bet if you don't want to fork over the money for shot peeing and or cryo. In this pic, you can kind of see how the bottom eccentric arm is a little thicker compared to the previous one, from an 87 i motor, even after being sanded.


Rather than pay to have a set of factory arms shot peened and/or cryo'd, a cheaper option is to go with a design that's just flat out better. If you compare the IE arms to the Febi ones, it's pretty clear that they're a lot beefier where it counts and have the casting marks already removed.


I broke a rocker arm along the casting mark in the first picture above with my IE 272. I happened to have a set of 88 ETA arms lying around that I sanded/polished and used to replace the older arms. Good chance I'm going with the beefier IE arms if these don't hold up on me though.