Swivel Rocker Adjusters
VW Parts, made in Japan with oil hole
I'll update this after the same time period had passed that we ran the Elephant feet for, ~5000 miles. That was on Kurts car, these swivel feet are on his truck motor. His car had Schneider valve springs with a 284 cam. Keiths car has the same Elephant feet Kurt used and he is just at ~1000 miles with stock valve springs and those are still in there.
See them here: Elephant Feet and on the HOME page for the 8 choices
The Elephant feet sold for VWs that are made in China we had on two engines and we have found that they are junk. The foot CRACKED on several of them around the socket after about 5000 miles but none had yet fallen apart when we inspected them and having no oil spraying on them they required frequent adjustment. On the head with the Schneider springs they required in the end almost daily adjustment. If you want to use those Elephant feet then I highly recommend that you bore the under side of each rocker arm so they will have an oil jet spraying on them like we are doing for these swivel feet and there are Elephant feet that are not made in China. These swivel type feet have a hole bored in the shaft. I asked if they required an oil supply for them and the shop told me no and that they used these same as the Elephant feet with the double springs, 150lbs for a max lift of .550 "Bugpack" part number 4010 is what they are.
Hydraulic rocker arms have a hole bored in them to feed the lifter then a ball is locked into the exposed hole to plug it up. The same thing can be done to our stock mechanical rockers to provide positive oiling for these feet. The threads cut around the screw will feed oil from the rocker oil feed hole and lube the swivel ball.
Here's the mechanical rocker arm and shows there is sufficient material so they could be drilled to provide oil to the swivel foot if you are using hydraulic rocker shafts.
The contact between the swivel ball and the valve tip is very good.
The rocker arms could be shaved/machined for better alignment between the valve tip and the swivel side-to-side. This is shown using a stock cam.
Left below, valve closed. Right below, valve fully open. I'll add additional pictures for higher lift cams to see that these still work. For those using an aftermarket roller cam that requires the longer early style valves... you can use lash caps instead and use these valves or the later style more common valves and get the correct geometry and not have to use those noisy washers under your lifters.
Here's an .avi file of the swivel ball operating as the cam is turned.
Mouse over or right click and save
The rocker arms are drilled to feed oil to the ball. If you have ever seen hydraulic rockers they have a similar passage to feed the lifters. Since we are using hydraulic rocker shafts that hole is already present but if you are not sure if you have hydraulic shafts those holes have a slot perpendicular to the shaft so the oil is fed even when the rocker is moving. If you don't have those holes then you have mechanical rocker shafts and have to swap shafts out or drill holes and slot them as pictured below. Before you can drill the hole in the rocker you need to assemble one intake/exhaust rocker along with one intake/exhaust valve and with the cam in place you have look at the feed slot in the shaft and decide the entry point hole and after you have adjusted the swivel for the clearance to the valve tip then you will know where the exit point should be. Remember this isn't a straight line and the oil will be feeding from the center outward. On this one, the hole in the screw when adjusted is in the center top-to-bottom range of the threads in the rocker arm. That means we drill the rocker at the angle that lines up with these two points. We used a 1/16" bit and before starting the hole filed a flat place to allow the bit to start the hole easier. Oil the bit and go slow pulling the bit out many times to clean out shavings. After you penetrate through the outer loop where the adjuster screws into the rocker watch the bit as you proceed further. The bit is very small diameter and it will try and deflect into the threads same as it did if you didn't file a flat place to start the hole in the first place and its luck that you will end up in the bottom of a thread or if you end up on the top of one and the bit will have to move to the side if you end up hitting the top of a thread so go very slow if this is happening. On these 8, it was 50/50 where the bit hit in the threads whether it had to deflect or not to finish the hole. After we had all the holes drilled that place that was filed flat was welded up with the TIG which sealed that outer hole then ground down the weld and cleaned up the rocker using a wire brush on a bench grinder.
Below left are the slots that feed the hydraulic rockers and those are the same slots we will be using to feed the swivel ball adjusters. The below right shows three holes per rocker on the bottom shaft (exhaust) and one on the top shaft (intake). Of the three, one is to lube the rocker on the shaft and those are the two that have the horizontal lines to either side and that allows oil to feed on each side of that hole. The hole that is above and slightly to the right of the exhaust rocker arm oil hole is to line up with a hole in the rocker arm to spray the exhaust lobe on the cam. In the picture below the rocker shafts you can see that oil jet hole in the exhaust rocker to the left of the slipper foot. The 3rd hole is not under the rocker arm but is out in the open on the shaft and that hole sprays oil onto the intake lobe of the camshaft. They didn't put the spray jet hole in the intake rocker arm or the hole in the rocker shaft to do that. I think they must have felt the exhaust rocker shaft would benefit from the extra cooling of that oil flow and it probably does.
Do not swap intake rockers for exhaust rockers, the exhaust rocker arm has a hole to oil the cam lobe and intake rockers have no such holes. The hole that is not in the intake rocker is instead in the exhaust rocker shaft.
Here's the rocker assembly. Don't forget your shafts will have the two raised points lined up with the dots drilled in the end of each shaft as an assembly check as shown below right.
This valve train is going on a Marnel head, if you look here Marnel Cap you will see more about that. This is what we did -at the intersection in the center that feeds the cam journal I drilled it open and removed the restrictions in there where the two holes didn't meet up and most importantly for the main valve train oil feed that had the tiny hole -I drilled that out completely. Remember all these places that lube the cam and swivel feet need allot of oil. Most engines seem to loose the silent shafts and will see a higher red line and all that means extra oil flow over stock so feed that oil to the valve train and even if not, this valve train can benefit from that extra oil but its your engine so you can decide. Remember that increased oil pressure over the stock level is going into your turbo front and rear oil seals. Its very important that the rocker assembly be put together correctly and the hydraulic parts used with hydraulic parts and the shafts not put in upside down etc. or you WILL eat a camshaft and/or your cam or your lifters. Don't just poke rockers on a shaft and bolt that to the head and cross your fingers.
Mitsibushi cam tower cap number one
Below, Marnel cam tower cap number one
BEFORE
AFTER
We cut the clearance spec. to what the Porsche spec. is of .0039. if you don't want to try and measure under the ball then you may do it on the cam lobe allowing for the rocker arm ratio. In this case that would be .0039 divided by 1.4 = .0028 as described here: Porsche valve screw adjustment
Success
We rolled the motor over and pumped up the oil pressure and oil started to come from around the ball on the swivel feet. This is going to be a great modification and now we will find the parts for, in our opinion, the ultimate valve train.....the mechanical roller rockers and drill them for oil feed for these swivels but this is a stock cam so the rollers weren't an option here.
I'll update this after the same time period had passed that we ran the Elephant feet for, ~5000 miles. That was on Kurts car, these swivel feet are on his truck motor. His car had Schneider valve springs with a 284 cam. Keiths car has the same Elephant feet Kurt used and he is just at ~1000 miles with stock valve springs and those are still in there.