Tuftriding

All this talk about Gary's rocker arms, etc. made me think about British Automotive's tuftrided rocker shafts. Having only built 2 engines so far, I don't have a lot of experience on this, but it seems like a pretty good idea on paper. Both old engines had worn rocker shafts. I understand that this is fairly common on rebuilds. You've got to wonder how much this slop affected the engine while it was running and how much it contributed to it's wearing out. Those tuftrided rocker shafts aren't cheap ($75US, I think). I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts about whether they were worth it or not.
TIA

What is 'tuftrided'??? A new rockershaft is only about 25 bucks!!

It's a trade name for a surface hardening process.

Seems like the stock shaft is good for somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 miles, so what's the point? Put the 50 bucks into something more useful, like hardened lifters.

In my limited experience, they last less than that according to the engines I've taken them out of. I think they wear early and people cuss and keep adjusting the valves and blame the clatter on "all MGs sound that way". FWIW
Point taken on hardened lifters. I'll have to look at that.

My rocker shaft has over 100,000 miles on it, has a little wear, but no adjustment or clatter problems.

I've never seen a lifter that wasn't hardened. What's this hardened lifter thing?

Agree, JDW...my Vermillion '79 is right on 100,000 with original rocker assembly & no slop or chatter...hardened lifters are a good idea though when rebuilding....
....I was thinking about roller rockers for my built Rover V8 engine but Glenn Towry talked me out of them...same basic argument, no requirement but something expesive to break...he did install hardened lifters & upgraded pushrods though

At a tech seminar at St. Louis we were told by Kent Prather that ALL the lifters for our engines are being manufactured by one company in Israel and that they are having all kinds of QC problems. I have to at least somewhat believe him, since on my recent rebuild I used Crane brand lifters, and three of them miked at .3152", which is about .002" bigger than the holes they go in. I got another set and was able to get eight of them that fit. I now have adjusted the #3 valve four times, it's been three or four thou loose every time, so I'm thinking that lifter is probably soft and tearing up my cam. I wish I'd kept my originals and had them resurfaced!!

JDW, for the past few years, B lifters have been JUNK, most hardness test in the 48-51 Rc scale, should be at least 54- 57 Rc.

Yup. Ken's basically got it, although when I suggested the "hardened" lifters, I was referring to the upgraded parts offered by Crane and others, and was under the assumption that they were, in fact, harder.

Doug Jackson <http://www.mgbmga.com/> has a pretty good discussion regarding lifters (and other neat stuff). I tried to buy his special set but he was out of stock...installed a stock set from Moss and haven't noticed any extra adjustment required, rocker shaft is worn pretty good...maybe time for a new one...

BTW...<http://www.heattreatment.co.uk/bowmic/tufftride.asp> will get you a short description of the Tufftride process.

David: I am having tuffrided shaft put in my rebuilt rocer assembly. 3 main engine with 80K on it. Pretty severe wear on middle rockers area. I have also asked shop to check to see if shims are needed for center pedestals.