Pro Comp Rockers and Shafts

[TMark390]

Bitten by the ebay bug. While scrolling thru all the multitude of parts I bid on a new set of roller rockers with shafts and stands. I won and when the part showed up its box is marked made in China. I know I did not do my homework here and now probably own some additional garage junk.

A little background - When I was building a 390 for 67' Cougar I decided also to build a 390 for a future Cobra project. I did not go totally overboard but it has the Edelbrock heads and slightly over .5" lift on the cam. I installed new adjustable iron rockers on stock shafts and stands.
Over the last couple of years I have seen where people break the stock shafts at the end stand, so wanting to avoid this I started thinking I needed a different set up that used the stands with end supports. Back to the beginning.

My thought is what I had is better than what I bought. Has anyone successfully ran the Pro Comp stuff?

[BBQCYCLEWERKES]

I was looking at the Pro Comp roller rocker set up last year for my FE. I did some research and found them to be less then the quality I wanted. I ended up going with the PRW set up in my motor and running a .570 lift hyd. roller cam set up. Good luck with the Pro Comp set up. It costs much more then the $200 extra expense for the PRW set up if the Pro Comp system fails.

[bobcowan]

Pro-Comp is cheap Chinese knock offs of American parts. I wouldn't use anything from them.

[blykins]

I would get rid of them.

I've never seen anything with the Procomp name on it that didn't have something wrong with it.

After watching a couple of engines on the dyno where I take my own engines, I'll say that I've seen Procomp roller rockers seize up and fail....I've seen a distributor quit working, and I've seen valve cover bolt holes on heads so far off that the valve covers couldn't bolt on.

Stay far, far away.

As Bob Q. said, the PRWs are very good quality for not much more money.

[joyridin']

I ran the aluminum version on my big block truck. I know a few people that used them for racing also. They work quite well. Pro-Comp used to have a stainless set. They were scrap. Many people had problems with galling and the rockers would seize. The aluminum set has roller bearings, so this wasn't an issue.

I would run them again on a moderate engine. I personally wouldn't use them for any super high revving application or anything for racing. That is just my 2 cents.

I ran one of their water pumps also. It was about 1/2 the price of a comparable aluminum version. Never had a single problem.

It is funny...if most of you actually saw the facility where some of these various parts are being manufactured, you would keel over and die. I visit a company that manufactures roller lifters (the name has been mentioned on here before), another place that makes crankshafts and camshafts, another that makes blocks and heads, and various other parts. Most of them are dumps. Old crappy machines, temps running the parts, using cheap chinese tooling, buying whatever cheap metal they can find. The crankshaft manufacturer uses all forgings from china. I have no idea what the facility that manufactures Pro-Comp items looks like, but I doubt it could get a whole lot worse than some I've already seen right here in the USA.

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by bobcowan

Pro-Comp is cheap Chinese knock offs of American parts. I wouldn't use anything from them.

+1. They make a lot of parts, none of which are any good.