Interesting Rocker Discovery

[ForcedFirebird]

What he is getting at is, it's similar to flat tappet cams and lifters. It is recommended you replace the lifters with a new cam, but an old cam can take new lifters. Since the cam is only case hardened, once you go through that, you wipe the lobe off with the lifters (rockers) that are hardened through. These are sliding surfaces and why we should be using high zinc oil.

[digger]

Not sure what you mean. Rockers are hardened all the way through whereas cams are surfaced hardened, yet they both wear out.

should not be wear on the cam than can be felt with a finger fail otherwise it really needs to be replaced to keep the engine running as it is supposed to.

the wear pattern on the rocker arms creates some funky patterns that can result in pretty localized gouging, flatspots etc in the position when the rocker ratio is highest where as other parts of the pad are basically unaffected. This doesnt seem to happen on a cam unless its well past being toast. i think the cam "wears" more uniformly over a larger surface area so a new rocker mates up fine with an older cam provided the cam isn't worn too much but a worn rocker will more readily create wear a new cam because the wear on the rocker is more localized due to the sweep pattern.

[jeffnhiscars]

You could catch your finger nail on the cam lob which is why we decided it had to go and your explanation of why the rockers should be dealt with makes perfect sense.

Thanks