Discolored rocker arms

I pulled the valve covers off of my engine today. The ones on the rear cyl of the drivers side were brownish blue. They are the 1.73s and are blue in color. I thought I was not getting oil or something along those lines but then I pulled off the pass side cover and had two there that were also the same color. These were the intake on cyl 1 and the exhause on cyl 2. They are free spinning and there is no spalling or anything that would show that there is a binding or even a lack of oil as the roller spins and the fulcrum locks spin. There is oil in the pockets of it (I have not started it since 05) but I did not have time to take them off. I am going to spin the pump and see if they are getting oil, but if they are, anyone have an idea about what the heck is causing the discoloration?

Chris

Take a rag and soak it in some carb cleaner. Rub it on the rocker body and see if that is actually color, or just deposits from the oil.

Post a picture if you can. Is the discoloration close to the trunnion bearing or closer to the needle?

The ENTIRE rocker arm is a different color. I know, I was confused too. It does not appear that it is just soaked with discolored oil. I mean they look like someone took a set of FMS arms and then two Hartland Sharps and installed them next to eachother. I will try to get pix up later today.

Chris

Chris,

Rockers I bought from CHP for my 347 are two different shades of anodized blue....I didn't notice until replacing head gaskets.

David

Naw, this is not a shade difference. It is a complete difference. Like between the color of your two cars.

Chris

Sorry it took so long. I am not wiked smat when it comes to cumputer stuff. Here are the pix.

Chris

It almost looks like you got a few that had some bad paint on them. Those ones you almost see the aluminum through the paint where as on the other ones you don't.

looks like the anodizing reacted to the oil different than the others.

Im going to pull the bolts on emm tonight and be sure all of the pivots are good.

Chris

Chris,

Looks like just the anodizing is bad. In order to "burn" the rockers to the point where they would discolor, there wouldn't be much left of them. Pop them off and inspect the trunions and see if there is any bind.

Nothing in the trunions. The tips feel like they had a flat spot in one of them that was discolored, but one of the blue ones had an even worse feeling one. Keep in mind that I have not cleaned them out after pulling the VC and dropping a bit of dirt/debris in there so I will clean them and see how it feels later.

At the base of the rocker, they are still blue like the other ones.

Chris

If it were discoloration from heat, that should be the first place that they would burn. What do you mean by the tips feel like it had a flat spot?