Elephant foot Rocker Adjusters
Before installing this type adjuster you should be using hydraulic rocker shafts and then drill the under side of your rocker arms to provide an oil jet to spray onto the ball socket for the foot. This is what we did to use a different type adjuster so just drill the hole so it exits the rocker arm aimed at the socket instead. We ran these on two motors and ended up taking them off the one motor with the HD springs after ~5000 miles. They are a good idea but these were China made parts and didn't hold up as expected. We since found another alternative.
See them here: Swivel Foot Adjusters and on the HOME page for the 8 choices
We will try these again at a later date after drilling the rocker arms for an oil jet. I thought of using hydraulic rocker arms with a steel/aluminum insert pressed in where the lifter used to be, have an oiling channel cut in the outer diameter that is fed from the oil hole that is already there, then drilled and tapped for the screws and the oil feed turned to the center or pointed downward depending on which style foot to use. That's because there are roller cams available and the mechanical roller rockers are so hard to locate. More on that project later.
Elephant Feet in action, mouse over to play
EMPI brand, $27.50 per set of 8. I asked about the spring pressure, the VW guys said they use these with 150lb dual springs. These work for stock springs but require frequent adjustment if you are using stiffer springs. There are better brands available such a Mahle-Wizemann.
A different size screw is available in a foot style like this, the screw is 9mm instead of 8mm and they named those "Rhino" feet.
I haven't purchased any of those and the site they are on is pissy about their pictures, here's that link:
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C18%2D1642
Here's what's under the foot on the Elephant feet, this is one that cracked on the engine with HD valve springs after ~5000 miles. The ball was pushing against the side of the socket in the foot. There isn't a total socket for the ball to fit in, only a portion of a socket with a cavity underneath, the socket wore out then the ball had contact with the bottom. The foot was pulled off after I put it in a vise and forced the screw out of it.
The three screws left to right, the Elephant screw from the above failed adjuster, a swivel foot adjuster and a stock adjuster screw
If you look in the above photos at the contact area for the adjuster to the valve, the Elephant, Rhino and Swivel ball adjusters all have contact with the surface of the valve in the same way (ignore the stock screw). If you look at the wear point in the adjuster, which is the ball and socket -Elephant/Rhino feet have no oiling internally while the swivel feet do. There are some brands of swivel feet that do not have internally oiling as these do. If you look at the size of the ball on the end of the screw of the Elephant feet (and I haven't personally seen Rhino feet yet) that ball is much smaller in diameter than the ball in the socket of the Swivel adjusters=less surface to wear meaning it will wear faster. There was mention on a VW site, Geneberg.com, not liking the swivel feet do to their being harder to adjust and yes I agree it is harder to get the ball square on the valve tip but not hard to get the feeler gauge in to adjust them but they were criticizing about them in a VW valve train. Why? They are down in a hole and you can't see them. This is a Porsche 911 engine shown and while its difficult to do without the special feeler gauge its not impossible but the swivel ball I can see would be a problem here.
If you allow for the ratio of your rocker arm you can adjust them on the cam lobe instead -same would apply to our engines
These Porsche
engines using these adjusters have the valve clearances at:
Intake: 0.1mm (.0039")
Exhaust: 0.1mm (.0039")
That would mean the feel gauge on the cam lobe side would be the adjuster clearance divided by the rocker arm ratio
.0039 divided by 1.4, or .0028 same as our stock rocker ratios - try it this way its much easier