Replacing rocker arms in 82 6.2L

[ayjude]

Hello all,

I have an 82 Suburban with the 6.2L and around 495,000 miles. The head gasket was leaking, and I have torn the heads apart, cleaned, inspected and lapped the valves. The rocker arm shafts have some pretty serious wearing where the rocker arms rotate around them. I happen to have a spare 6.2L from an '83 Suburban that I use for parts now and then. The two rocker arm assemblies off of the spare engine have very little wear on them, and I would like to put them in my working engine (I do not know if the spare engine was able to run or not when I pulled it).

My question is, would I need to swap out pushrods and lifters also? Or is it safe to use the rocker arms from the spare engine with the pushrods from my working engine?

I have also searched the forums for this question, and found many postings about nylon buttons. Are those the 4 washers at the very ends of the rocker arm shafts, or the 2 'C' shaped bushings between arms 1 & 2 and 3& 4? A picture of the button would be very helpful.

Thanks to all for the great and informative base of knowledge here.

Adrian Byers

[Robyn]

The early engines had the cast rockers and the later ones had the stamped steel rockers (Much like the mouse and the Rat)
The buttons go in the center of the rocker to hold it in position on the shaft.

If your pushrods are in good order use them and keep them with the same end up as was before.
If the lifters were working ok use them.

If its not broke dont fix it. Or may be that was, if its not broke it soon will be. :D

best

Robyn

[ayjude]

Robyn,

I don't know about the rats, but I do know that the mouse(s) are what ate up the interior of my 74 Volvo while it was stored in the garage.

Joking aside, I don't know about the mouse and rat. But using rocker arms from one engine #2 on engine #1, with pushrods (facing the correct way) and lifters from engine #1 is OK to do. Got it.

Now, I cannot find any nylon anything on 4 sets of rocker arms. 2 from each engine. Is it possible that they are all just worn away? Or did earlier 6.2L's not have nylon?

Adrian

[More Power]

The stamped-steel rocker arms used nylon button retainer to locate the rockers on the shafts. The earlier cast-iron rockers were located via cotter pins, springs and washers. The rocker shafts were specific to each type of rocker arm, so you'd have to use the right shaft with the right rockers.

The newer stamped-steel versions are the better choice, though a nice set of cast-iron versions would be fine too. :)

Jim

[ayjude]

PHEW!!! I was looking at the rocker arms, and they are cast iron. The rocker arms from both engines are cast iron- washers, cotter pins and spacers. So I do not need to worry about the nylon.

I am keeping the rocker arms intact as I found them. I am pulling the shaft assembly from cylinders 2 & 4 on the spare engine, cleaning it up (while keeping every part in order and facing the right direction) then putting it on cylinders 2 & 4 on the running engine. I know the I could put it on any two cylinders, but I want to know where each part used to be on the spare engine while on the running one- just in case of failure.

So after I pull the last two rocker arms off of the spare engine and clean them up, I am ready to start putting everything back together. Three months without my truck. I can't wait to drive her again.

Thanks again everybody.

Adrian