E7TE Rocker Conversion

Hello All,

I'm rebuilding a set of E7 heads for high-performance street use on a '93 5.0L motor and want to convert the rockers from pedestal mount to stud mount with guide plates.  I've read that the pedestals don't have enough "meat" for drilling and tapping for 7/16" rocker studs.  I've searched for 3/8" studs, but haven't been able to find anything.  Has anyone done the machining for such a conversion or know if this would cause a problem?  I understand that I probably don't need the stud mounted rockers for 6500 rpm/less, but wanted to buy roller rockers that I could reuse on race heads in the future, rather than buy the bolt-on rr's now and stud mounted rr's later.  Plus, the additional valvetrain stability and adjustability factors don't hurt either.  

Welcome to the forum, aford2gofast.  According to FRPP, there's absolutely no problem with drilling and tapping the pedestals on the E7TE heads for 7/16-14 studs.  As you mentioned, they're probably overkill for any hydraulic roller cam (that would be used with these iron heads), but if you wanted to use stud-mounted RR's with a bigger cam and bigger heads in the future, you would avoid the add'l expense of having to buy another set of rockers.  Of course, the extra cost of machining would have to be taken into account, but if you were to do it yourself that wouldn't be a consideration.  Good luck and let us know how the project works out for you!  

Thanks for the reply.  I'll give it a shot and keep you posted!