goodgollyjosh
XS650 Addict
For those of you who have been following my build, you know that I have done a lot of research on the elephant foot adjusters; brands, quality, cost, etc. Well, I recently came across these rocker arms from xs cycle out of Canada. I found them on ebay, they only had a few sets for sale, some of you here may have purchased them. I bought the last set but I am sure they will make more in the future. They were $120 plus $20 shipping to the U.S.. I wanted to do a quick review of them.
They are advertised as modified production xs rocker arms. They state that they are weight matched, re-faced, dry film coated on the slider follower, and clearanced for elephant foot adjusters (Porsche style). I was curious about these rocker arms because I bought genuine Porsche elephant foot adjusters and a set of four was $100 made by Mahle. So, I bought them to check out the details.
Well, these rockers do have the Porsche style, the paper work states they are made in the U.S. so they aren't trying to pass them off as something they aren't, I appreciate that. The quality of the foot is decent but not as nice as the Mahle unit, see picture for a comparison.
The dry film coating was done in Canada, it looks good but I can't see the quality of the re-facing job on the slider follower very well. You can kind of tell that the re-facing job does not go to the end of the pad, but the wear pattern of the cam doesn't normally travel that far anyway and I can say from experience it is difficult grinding these to the end without making contact with the oil squirter hole.
They do appear to have been lightly honed in the housing bore for the rocker shaft, that is good, I will check to make sure the clearances are where they should be.
The clearancing for the elephant foot is quite nice and leaves a lot of meat for strength.
Now, one thing I didn't like was the "weight matched" advertising. I checked these rockers and here are the numbers:
145.0903 grams
146.3415
148.0866
148.1242
Now I realize most people's scales don't go to the fourth decimal place when measuring grams but when you weight match any engine component it is common knowledge that everyone expects them to be within a gram of one another. Not the end of the world I can do this myself, they just shouldn't have advertised it.
All in all, not too bad. I might give them a go to see how they do but with my Mahle adjusters installed
They are advertised as modified production xs rocker arms. They state that they are weight matched, re-faced, dry film coated on the slider follower, and clearanced for elephant foot adjusters (Porsche style). I was curious about these rocker arms because I bought genuine Porsche elephant foot adjusters and a set of four was $100 made by Mahle. So, I bought them to check out the details.
Well, these rockers do have the Porsche style, the paper work states they are made in the U.S. so they aren't trying to pass them off as something they aren't, I appreciate that. The quality of the foot is decent but not as nice as the Mahle unit, see picture for a comparison.
The dry film coating was done in Canada, it looks good but I can't see the quality of the re-facing job on the slider follower very well. You can kind of tell that the re-facing job does not go to the end of the pad, but the wear pattern of the cam doesn't normally travel that far anyway and I can say from experience it is difficult grinding these to the end without making contact with the oil squirter hole.
They do appear to have been lightly honed in the housing bore for the rocker shaft, that is good, I will check to make sure the clearances are where they should be.
The clearancing for the elephant foot is quite nice and leaves a lot of meat for strength.
Now, one thing I didn't like was the "weight matched" advertising. I checked these rockers and here are the numbers:
145.0903 grams
146.3415
148.0866
148.1242
Now I realize most people's scales don't go to the fourth decimal place when measuring grams but when you weight match any engine component it is common knowledge that everyone expects them to be within a gram of one another. Not the end of the world I can do this myself, they just shouldn't have advertised it.
All in all, not too bad. I might give them a go to see how they do but with my Mahle adjusters installed
