DeTomaso Mailing List: July 2001, Message #93

A stud girdle, that is. 

Problem - my roller rockers come loose after a mere 500-1000 miles. When they come loose, they get beat to hell by the pushrods until eventually something breaks. My collection of bent or broken pushrods is now up to about 10. The last time this happened (last week), I called a towtruck to deliver it back to the shop that did the work last month. When the car arrived at the shop, the rear suspension had somehow been actually ripped off the chassis during the transportation. :-(   I just talked to the garage, and he confirmed that this could only have occurred during transport, there's no way it could have happened while driving (the car is undriveable like that). My insurance company is the group that arranged the transport, so I am covered there. But I would rather avoid towtrucks for a while.

Anyway, back to my question. I've now talked to several people who are actually running solid lifters and roller rockers, and can go 5,000-10,000 miles between valve adjustments. Even if the solid lifters are not entirely necessary, they don't appear to be fundamentally incompatible with roller rockers. I'd certainly need taller valve covers with a girdle, but the would this help keep the adjustment a little longer? 

Harland Sharp says that they believe it  is simply the vibration and shock of the solid lifters causing them to loosen. If this is the case, then a girdle might help spread that shock and keep the adjustment. 

What do you think?

Charlie McCall
1972 DeTomaso Pantera #3847 (for sale)
1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness across Europe"
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/gt5s_1985