Needle bearings in oil pan

**oldguy** · 07-19-2006, 04:04 PM

98 T/A stock. 69k miles has needle bearing in the oil pan. GM TSB says replace rockers. Anyone else had this problem?

thanks

**ullose2** · 07-19-2006, 04:50 PM

I have heard of this problem. Just replace the rocker arms and u will be fine. My 00 model is ok so far only 49k on it though.

**brokenls1** · 07-19-2006, 05:13 PM

Use a big magnet against the oil pan and try to get the rest towards the drain plug. Off hand I want to say that there are 64 of em in each rocker, but I am probably wrong. Any how, do a search and find how many of em are in each rocker. Then find the bad one (rocker) and take out the remaining needle bearings and hope that you got them all.

Best of luck to ya

**mrr23** · 07-19-2006, 05:17 PM

you gotta love the stock rockers. some of the fastest drag racing LS1 cars use them, but they keep falling apart on daily driver cars.

**Flobeast385** · 07-19-2006, 05:22 PM

There is a GM service bullitin out for all LS engines about needle bearing coming out of rocker arms and ending up in oil pan. bullitin states to replace all rocker arms not just one, which is the best thing to do because i have actually tried finding the rocker/rockers with missing bearings and it sucks especially when its warrenty. This would be a good time to throw a set of rollers on it

**oldguy** · 07-20-2006, 11:33 AM

Thanks, I have the valve covers off and the #2 exhaust rocker was the culprit. Not sure if it bent the push rod but it was binding pretty hard. I'll replace it anyway. I am replacing all 16 rockers as I do not want to do this again. The newer GM parts are supposedly better.

**kealap** · 07-21-2006, 07:33 AM

Same thing happened to me, but I found I had 3 bad rockers!!! I just replaced mine with the Yella Terra roller rockers and haven't had a prob. yet. Been about 4000 miles now. Good parts and affordable.

**viper99ta** · 07-23-2006, 03:33 PM

Even better is get Harland Sharp to rebuild the stockers. He puts c-clips on the ends so the bearings won't fall out again, and a much better trunion. $250.00, on their website. And I'm 99% sure there 66 bearings, 33 per side.

**540z28** · 08-03-2006, 05:55 AM

My brother in law had this same problem with one of the rockers on his 80K TA. He had a shop replace them and all was okay for about 100 miles. Then a ticking started. Took it back to them and they found 2 bent pushrods. What could they of missed that caused the bending later. Thanks

**oldguy** · 08-03-2006, 09:20 AM

When I removed the bad rocker in mine, it was binding pretty badly. I checked the pushrod on the bad rocker and it did not appear bad but I replaced it anyway. My guess would be the pushrods had a slight bend which got worse when they they replaced the rockers and torqued them. Either that or they did not use the correct procedure to torque them and bent one in the process. Just my guess.

***Ed Blown Vert*** · 08-03-2006, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by mrr23

you gotta love the stock rockers. some of the fastest drag racing LS1 cars use them, but they keep falling apart on daily driver cars.

So funny. I am still using my stock Rockers.

**oldguy** · 08-03-2006, 09:36 AM

How many miles?

***Ed Blown Vert*** · 08-03-2006, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by oldguy

How many miles?

I am close to 90k

**oldguy** · 08-03-2006, 11:01 AM

Guess the "blown, stroked and sprayed" protects the rockers!

***Ed Blown Vert*** · 08-03-2006, 11:03 AM

And I race it when ever I get a chance. I even have my stock rear.

**oldguy** · 08-03-2006, 11:05 AM

I want to add nos and change the exhaust on mine. What do you recommend?

***Ed Blown Vert*** · 08-03-2006, 11:06 AM

NX for the Nitrous.

**ninobrn99** · 08-03-2006, 03:12 PM

my theory still holds true. "those who dont care about breaking shit, dont...those who do...DO!" guess thats just how it rolls. Instead of getting a new set of stock rockers, get a set from Nasty performance. They're redone so you dont lose needle bearings. under 300 bucks too.