1.7 Rockers

[Mustanganatic]

I got a buddy selling his Crane Cobra 1.7 roller rockers and was thinking about putting them on my '89 5.0. It's a stock HO motor, anyone got any opinion if it's worth the expense and effort? I'm already replacing the valve covers with the Ford Racing ones. I've googled the rockers and found some discussions on Stang.net and Corral.net. A lot say I'll have to bend in the oil baffle to clear the rockers. Also, most recommend replacing the valve springs. I found one comment that the stock pushrods won't work. I called Crane... this guy was basically looking up the parts and reading from footnotes. The pushrods should be OK and as far as springs, it didn't say to replace them, but with the 1.7 rockers, recommended to use the 44308-1 springs. Any comments on this are appreciated.

 

[wheelhopper]

I replaced mine many years ago with 1.7 Cobra rocker arms. I cut out the oil baffle and replaced the springs just to make sure I never had any problems. 50K+ miles later the car is still running strong with those rocker arms and springs.

 

[Mustanganatic]

wheelhopper, do you think it's worth doing on a stock motor? Well, I do have Bassani shorties and an X-pipe. Thanks.

 

[Derek@Amazon]

im running them on mine also... but with a B cam...

not sure if its really worth it on E7's

 

[FISHTAIL]

i'd use them. I ran them on mine with a trick flow intake, stock cam, stock heads and stock valve springs, and was trapping 103mph. My only other note worthy mods then were headers, off-road H-pipe, gears, and TB/Spacer/MAF. Car had about 160-170k on it at the time.

 

[wheelhopper]

My car is all bolt on and I don't regret doing it. Just don't expect to pick up 50hp out of it. It is probably a 10hp or so mod, with the same for torque. Maybe a little better, but not much, It is easier than swapping a cam and does provide a little more lopey idle to give the impression that you have a cam. I have never run my car at the drag strip so I can't tell you anything as far as time improvements go. I can tell you that I have buried the needle on my 140mp speedo with them, so I do believe it improves your top speed.