Well to get my mind off things, I
ordered an new oil pump, stud-girdle and a few other things. I liked how
CompCams
stud-girdle was made after checking into many other
manufactures.
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A stud-girdle acts like a support for
the valve train, but mainly the rocker arm studs. Engines using roller
cams need stud girdles because of the high lift. Testing has shown power
is lost in stud flex unless a stud girdle is used. When it's attached,
this two piece design made out of 6061-T6 Aluminum bolts together in
four places and are spring-loaded to aid in valve adjustment. It comes
with 16 poly-locks made out of 4130 steel, heat treated and precision ground for minimum
run-out. The set screws act like a lock nut (or double nut) to make sure
nothing comes loose.
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This is one of four poly-locks that
have a groove in them for a snap-ring. This acts like a stop for the two
piece Aluminum bars to sit on so it locates properly. These go on each
end of the head (two per head).
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Remember the part about taking my mind
off things, well I guess that just wasn't meant to be. After looking at
all the parts more closely, there were more problems. I only had three of the poly-locks that have
grooves in them and there should be four. It figures so I called
Summit
(which sells racing parts along with import stuff) which is where I
bought it and told them what I
found and he said that he would send me out the missing part. Sounded
good to me and the part should be here in a few days. Sure enough a few
days later, not only one part came but four. Now I felt better about the
whole thing and didn't cuss them as much.
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The next day I took stud girdle and
new parts to the garage and wanted to see how it fit. Now I know that
things get screwed up from time to time but this took the cake. I
thought the missing part was bad but now I had a bunch of problems.
After screwing on the poly-locks by hand, it was time to tighten them
down but my socket didn't want to fit on two of them. What the hell was
this? I thought my socket was bad so I broke out the end wrench and it
didn't fit either. After measuring the hex on top, I found out they were
oversize. Looks like they were never finished. But the fun doesn't stop
there. Now all these have 7/16 threads in them....at least they're suppose
to. One of them had 3/8 threads. Well I couldn't use that one no
matter what I did. A little more looking and a little more
problems...like one with tight threads. This wouldn't be a big deal but
when it wiped out the top of the stud, then it was a big deal. Now what
kind of quality control do these guys have?? Let's recap what we have
wrong....no groove in one, two that won't fit a wrench, one that has the
wrong thread and one that is SOOOOO tight that it ruined the rocker
stud. This meant that I would have to make a phone call again but this
time I called CompCams. After talking to someone in the tech department
and telling him only part of the problem, he interrupted me and said
that he wanted me to call the place I bought it from. Now it was my turn
to interrupt and finished telling him ALL that was wrong with his
product. After I was done he told me that he was going to send out
another one that would be opened, gone through piece by piece and
checked to make sure everything was there. He also said that he wanted
the old one back to see who packed it and they would pay for the
shipping. This made me feel better so I'll be waiting for a package to arrive
next week and see if that one's any better. Is it hot in here or is it
just me......
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