Broke rocker arm..

[DIRTYDOG427]

Originally Posted by RICK LAKE

DIRTYDOG427 Pictures tell us alot of what happened. here's some ideas without see the rocker arm, are the arms aluminum or steel? Location of the break helps too. Is the riding surface of the shaft blue?
Going by your story here goes You said the motor needed over size cam bearings? I have not heard of them being around. If the bearing spins even a little on the #2 or #4 cam bearing you loose oil to the shafts. Since it was an end one, you may have no oil pressure to it and it just broke from heat and no lube. This is the reason for a picture. This rocker could be 20+ years old and just got fragile over this time and cracked. Next would be to check for coil bind on the valve spring. You want about .100" clearance between the coils. You can go as low as .060" I don't recomend this tightness.
The end support might not be seated and come loose and rocker everytime that end rocker goes through a cycle. The shaft will flex and the rocker will edge wear and break. Pushrod rubbing on the intake manifold hole can break the rocker if the pushrod is not centered to the rocker and the ball in the adjuster end. The hold down bolts, for the rocker shafts may have loosen, with out alot of oil going to the rocker arm pivot area, again over heat, hot spot and snapped.
I am going a little off base but this all comes back to possibility of the same problem, poor or no oiling to the rocker shafts. What is the oil pressure on the car in both hot and cold startup? Also what is the pressure at 2,000 rpms. I don't need this to the last pound but feel that you have little to no oil pressure at idle to the rocker shafts. Just because the gauge reads 30 psi at idle you may only have 5 psi at the rockers. IMOP if you are not running a HVHP oil pump with a MIN of a #60 psi pressure spring, the motor will not last. An HVHP oil pump with an #80 pound spring would be alot safer all the way around. This is not a small block chevy we are running. An FE needs alot more oil pressure and flow because of the way the oil goes in these motors, that is except for a side oiler. Also after repair get a bottle of Lucas oil suppliment and add this. Its a clinging oil and helps on startups. Quiets the motor and rocker arms down too. Make sure you add this with the motor warm and pour slow and let run for a couple of minutes to get a good mix. Also add 1 extra quart of oil to the motor. The returns are slow on the FE motors. It will not hurt anything and always keep your pickup in oil and not sucking air. You might still have a problem with camshaft bearings unless they where pinned in location. I will hope for old age. I would replace the set and buy either Harland-Sharps, Look around for a set of Ersons, or the replacement of the erson setup. They are not cheap but the motor is worth 10K, if you break it do you have another bullet in the garage? Don't go cheap on this part. Also add limiters to the rocker shaft openings to about .080-.090" oriface to control oil to the bottom end and keep more down bottom. This is ONLY if you repalce the oil pump with an HVHP one. Rick L.

Rick - this is a great post .. with a lot of info...I did make a mistake on the shafts as they are steel and broke right where the hole is drilled in em...no discoloration..and they look awlful good.. BUT & AND THIS IS A BIG BUTT LIKE ME... THERE'S MORE TO THE OIL CHANGE SCENARIO.. as I changed out the filter the jerk whom installed the filter placement on the driver's side of the fiberglass panel positioned the bracket too close to the frame to allow a filter wrench to get in there and around the filter without forcing the panel to flex ..and even then it's hard to get in there with a filter wrench...it's about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the bottem of the Fl-1A to the frame..so trying to load the open filter with oil in it onto the remote adapter is a tricky job..after about 5 plus minutes I got the filter started and got the wrench around the filter..Because it's remote with the Aero lines running to the cooler in the frount by the radiator --I didn't want to tighten it down until I was sure I had drained all thhe oil out of the cobra pan (flat botten inverted T shape pan).. I was afraid of the siphon efffect which could have turned out to be the fatal flaw... so long story short I drained and added to the full mark on the dipstick and started it up ...NO PRESSURE...2nd mistake is I let it run at low RPM for too many seconds.. I am guessing about 20-30 seconds before I notice there's oil all over the cement.. I never went back and tightened the filter !! TOTALLY EXPENSIVE SENIOR MOMENT !!! IT WAS me being in a hurry and wanting to get it started..so this motor ran with approximately a gallon low for 30 seconds at low RPM... I added a gallon and restarted and pressure jumped to 65 plus immediately.. I don't know the total capacity but it is at least 2 gallons with the lines & cooler & FILTER & big cobra pan etc..U never can really get all the oil out unless U somehow pressure it out..air ? It never really sounded any different and for the last 500 miles or so BEFORE THE OIL CHANGE the lifters had been gettting nosier...I have not adjusted them and it's been right at 2000 miles total since install...the ambient temp was about 65 degrees and with any rpm over 2000 or so the pressure will climb to 80 and I get scared of too much presssure if it's cold so I try and keep the rpm low 2000-2500.. until it warms up.. the pressure is always 60 plus even on hot summer days..I drove it a lot last summer when it was 100 degrees plus and it would still run 65 psi..the oil temp has never been over 150 or so.. on this motor even on 100 degree days..when going down the road at 50-100mph..but like I said earlier I ran all summer with no thermostat.. I only drive it out in east texas country lonely roads..So there it is.. MY BAd...destroying the sh-t I love... Thanks again Rick and all of Uall and will try and get back with a pic