Free Up Horsepower in Your Small-Block with Roller Rockers

Drag racers have been searching for tricks to gain horsepower since day one, and there are lots of ways to do it without spending a tremendous amount of time or money. One of the biggest downfalls of the original small-block Chevrolet design was the valvetrain, due to a lack of efficiency—lots of flat surfaces meeting other flat surfaces, leading to unnecessary friction. And even though stamped steel rocker arms were perfectly fine for daily use in your grandmother’s Caprice, they just don’t cut it considering the affordability compared to new roller rocker arms.
Whether you’re dealing with a mostly stock junkyard small-block or a highly modified race engine, rocker arms play a big role in freeing up horsepower and helping reduce friction in the valvetrain. There are numerous options for small-block Chevy roller rocker arms. First is a stamped steel rocker arm with a roller tip, which is the least expensive option. Second is an aluminum or chrome-moly steel rocker arm with the stock 1.5:1 ratio. Finally, you can opt for the same type of aluminum or chrome-moly rocker arm with a higher ratio to effectively increase the maximum valve lift. We have seen many combinations, including staggered rocker arm ratios (exhaust rockers with a higher ratio than the intake rockers or vice versa).
You can easily gain 20 horsepower with a rocker arm swap, but installing them isn’t quite as simple as removing the stock rockers and bolting on new ones. For seasoned car guys, it’s a quick process, but if you’re new to the task of setting valve lash you might want to take some notes before you tackle the project. If you’re dealing with an engine with quite a few miles on it, now would be a good time to replace the flimsy stock pushrods with a set of hardened pushrods. For our 327ci small-block Chevy, we went with a set of Comp Cams High Energy 7809 pushrods, which are 7.266-inches in length and 5/16-inch in diameter. Please note that the 7.266-inch length is designed for use with Comp Cams’ hydraulic roller retrofit camshaft. A standard small-block Chevy with a flat tappet camshaft would use a 7.800-inch pushrod, but many factors, including deck height, head gasket thickness, rocker arm ratio, and more go into determining proper pushrod length.