The 95 Camaro is my buddies car. The engine was built by someone else. It has an aftermarket cam, lifters and push rods, with a few other minor bolt-on additions. One morning he started the engine and 5 seconds later the rod went through the block. So he found another engine, bone stock, and used all the speed parts he could salvage from his first engine and installed it on the 'new' engine. Fast forward a year, we had it purring just minutes before the valve started making noise. It still has the stock roller rockers with the stock length pushrods.
When I was adjusting the valve lash, I noticed the rocker nuts only screwed on a couple of threads on every valve. Last night we double checked the rocker studs from the other engine, which were identical in length. They are: 7/16" by 3/8", 24 tpi, 2-1/4" total length. We came to the conclusion we need longer rocker studs. 2-1/2" will do.
So my question is: has anyone had a problem like this? If so, how was it solved? I firmly believe longer studs are the answer.
I checked Summit Racing for rocker studs for this particular car and came up with no results. Jegs only sells direct replacement studs. Not longer studs. I haven't found anything from ARP, as of yet.
