In 1995, a series of
cost effective stud mounted rocker arms that were destined for the back pages
of the more expensive Miller Engineering Stand and Stud designs were spun off into a
separate company: PVS.
The goal of this new company was
simple: provide Miller's MID-LIFT Geometry for a cost effective stud
mounted rocker arm market, and give engine builders on a budget something
better than the "machine shop" rockers being made by shops with
little or no automotive valve train experience - or understanding.
Additionally, make a BETTER
rocker arm than America's most popular stud mounted rockers. The MID-LIFT
geometry assured this, since no other rocker arm was made this precisely. But the manufacturing had to be novel to combine all
these goals into reality.
Hitting a new bench mark in pricing while providing features no
other manufacturer has ever offered meant breaking away from the high,
monopoly oriented pricing of domestic material suppliers. So in 1997 Jim used his international
expertise, established overseas offices and engineers who work exclusively for
him, and began importing aircraft grade alloys from Germany and Asia, made to
custom specifications from
prototypes developed in-house at MEI. This was then combined with
unique manufacturing techniques that achieved new
standards with more affordable
pricing. As the smaller quantity production was converted into larger batches,
typically running 40,000 piece batches, quality control needed to be refined to
meet this. Minor inconsistencies in colors, heat treats, and tolerances forced
Jim to redesign production methods. These early aluminum roller tip rockers
started as a LIME GREEN, then a DARK GREEN, and finally to two shades of GOLD,
as we experimented with consistency in such large batches.
One issue that came up in the very early aluminum PVS
rockers, was the ROLLER PINS. Because we used the same Roller and Pin for both
Small Block (SB) and Big Block (BB) designs, centering them properly during
their press fit operation became critical, because the SB rockers were wider
at their nose than the BB rockers, the flush on both ends pin of the BB
rockers were literally buried within the SB rockers on both ends. These
earliest SB rockers press fit had high production errors of over-centering the
pin, pushing the knurled end up against the roller, within the rocker tip.
Literally, the roller on some would not roll freely, and in a few worse cases,
pins would come loose. While we only had about 5 to 10 sets suffer a rocker
that failed because of this; that was 10 sets too many.
SOLUTION: Nearly 10,000 Lime Green SB rockers of
this original pressed pin were REWORKED. We redesigned the pin to use the
SWEDGE end, plus a KNURL on the opposite end, and we never looked back. We
discounted the REWORK models to nearly half price, and anyone with those
rockers today, as many still have, are just fine. Ironically, the PRESSED-IN
only Pin (with a knurl on one end) works GREAT in our most expensive rockers,
because the volume and precision of assembly is more tightly controlled. So
the idea was just fine; but the execution for high volume needed the safety
net of a knurl and swedge. As a result all DARK GREEN and GOLD series rockers
(95% of the 120,000+ produced) all have this final pin and roller design, and
are still being used on engines today, in 2026, some 30 years after the first
production.
By 1998, the final products were
finished, inspected, and assembled
in-house on the same high tech machines used to for the more expensive systems
made entirely by MEI in
the Pompano Beach facility. You might call these the "generic" version of
MEI products.
In 2003, PVS, as a separate entity, was dissolved between
the co-founders, and MEI assumed all control, incorporating PVS products into
the MEI products as MILLER PRODUCTS GROUP (MPG). The original extruded PVS
rockers were essentially discontinued at that time in favor of the MEI Pro
Stud design, and the focus for rockers were more for direct hi-end sales
(professional competition) over WAREHOUSE sales, which only caused pricing and
customer support issues. Ironically, many of the WDs that PVS had, just
wouldn't spend the time with their customers explaining the MID-LIFT
difference in geometry over other, cheaper brands they also sold. It made
little benefit in use of the MID-LIFT precision geometry if the rockers
weren't installed correctly using the proper length pushrods. This lesson was
also a seminal inspiration for the MID-LIFT.com web site, first launched in
2003, to provide these fundamentals, which has served many engine builders
now, using all brands of rockers, for the last 23 years, and of course led to
publishing of the "Advanced
Rocker Arm Tech" (ARAT) in 2016, then upgraded in 2023 with the
Hardcover version.
