Photo of rocker bearing next to lifter bearing?

[thomasterrible]

I found 5 needle bearings during my last oil change. Took photos of them and everyone's guess was they were from the rocker arm trunions. BUT I bought the Comp Cams upgrade kit and during the install NONE of the rocker trunion bearing pins were missing.

There was some damage to two of the rocker arms and two pushrods. I am about to get the heads off to look but before doing so was wondering if anyone could help.

DOES ANYONE HAVE A PHOTO WITH A ROCKER ARM TRUNION BEARING NEXT TO A BEARING FROM AN LS1 LIFTER?

This would let me know how much the difference in size is.

There is the possibility that the rocker bearings came apart before I bought the car two years ago with 30K miles on it and just now got dislodged in the last few thousand miles as they never found all the bearings at the time. Stranger things have happened.

My car is at a shop a State over so it is not like I can hold off or had planned any of this but have to deal with it very soon. If I have to go in further I have a list of upgrade parts since the labor won't be much more just the parts and may as well get more power and durability.

The car is a 1998 TA WS6 with stock LS1 (other than the trunion upgrade I just did).

Thanks to anyone that can help!

[Spikito]

So let me get this straight.

you found 5 needles in your oil

Then you did the trunion upgrade.

and you want pictures of needle bearing compared to the bearing used in the trunion upgrade kit?

[thomasterrible]

So let me get this straight.

you found 5 needles in your oil

Then you did the trunion upgrade.

and you want pictures of needle bearing compared to the bearing used in the trunion upgrade kit?

NOPE
I found 5 bearings in the oil. Thought they were rocker trunion bearings. However when I did the upgrade kit there were no missing rocker arm bearings. So what I am wanting to see is the difference between rocker arm trunion bearings and lifter bearings to see if they are very similar or different enough to be obvious. Where did those bearings come from if not from the rocker trunions? Could have been that the rocker arms were replaced many miles ago and the old bearings never recovered and just recently dislodged. Really a mystery. The motor had 30K miles when I bought it and 40K now. There are two pushrods and rockers that have to be replaced. Could be a bad lifter or two, don't know yet. But I would like to see if the bearings for rockers and lifters are similar or not to help solve the mystery. Make more sense?

[Spikito]

yeah a little...i didnt think lifters had bearings..thats where you lost me

[thomasterrible]

yeah a little...i didnt think lifters had bearings..thats where you lost me

I solved the issue. I found that the car was serviced at 16K miles for the rocker bearings coming out. The dealer replaced the rocker arms and flushed the system but did not disassemble and thus why I found bearings in there that have been floating around ever since. Now has 40K miles. The lifters have bearings around the body much like the trunion bearings on the rocker arms so before I found out this information I wanted to know if they were much larger or not to know if there was a chance the bearings I found were from the lifters. I have only seen a lifter all put together.

So now the question is if any of those bearings have damaged anything in all these miles or if there are more still in there. Could have damaged a cam lobe or rocker or in the timing chain or oil pump maybe, really impossible to tell unless torn apart. Though that could be a ton of labor for nothing since I have to pay as it is already apart at a shop. I am going to see if I can afford the labor for him to install a hotter cam and new LS7 lifters and springs and new timing chain and oil pump etc. which would make it 95% sure there were no more bearings in there, more power and more durable. BUT since I had only budgeted for the rocker arm bearing change with me doing the labor on the bearing upgrade this is now 10 times the cost so I may not be able to afford it. Going to the pawn shop today and asking if he will take a post dated check. It is a big hairy ugly deal. But yup there are bearings around the lifter of a similar type as the rockers, just how large they are in comparison I did not know. Now that I have measured them against old ones when I got home they would have to be so close to need to measure to be the same. They are rocker trunions though. There is a TSB on this issue with the rockers and why so many people do that Comp Cams upgrade kit. This happened to my 98 WS6 at 16K miles. I bought it at 30K. So I would really suggest anyone that has an LS1 invest in that 135 buck bearing upgrade BEFORE this happens to them! Finding all the bearings again is obviously a real bitch!