Engine – Rocker Arm Tips

LC Engineering strongly recommends replacing the rocker arms on your Toyota engine when a new camshaft is installed. The main reason is the rocker arm will usually wear or "burnish" before the camshaft lobe will. When replacing a camshaft and not replacing the rocker arms, the new camshaft will contact the used rocker arms in a different spot and create an un-even surface for the camshaft lobe. In most cases the two burnish marks will overlap and cause scoring and eventually camshaft failure. It is possible to resurface the rocker wear pads but not recommended. Often times the "burnish" mark is too uneven or deep and cannot be saved. If the "burnish" mark is all the way across the wear pad, the rocker arms need replacement. There are some sample photos below that will show some examples of normal wear and abnormal wear. Please contact our Technical Department for further information.

Brand new rocker arm wear pad & new camshaft lobe

How a normal wear pattern looks on a camshaft lobe.

How an abnormal wear pattern looks on a camshaft lobe

How an abnormal wear pattern looks on a rocker arm wear pad

How an extremely worn rocker arm wear pad looks.