Techniques for designing custom contoured rocker arm pads and custom contoured camshaft lobes

A method, comprising:

• receiving, at a computing device including one or more processors, parameters for a rocker arm and a valve of an engine and a contact point path defining a plurality of contact points between a pad of the rocker arm and a tip of the valve at various rotation angles of the rocker arm, the engine including a camshaft having a lobe operable to actuate the rocker arm via a follower or follower/pushrod, the valve having a stem and a guide;
• calculating, at the computing device, one or more metrics based on the contact point path, the one or more metrics including at least one of (i) a valve tip wear metric and (ii) a stem-to-guide collision energy of the valve;
• outputting, at the computing device, the one or more metrics;
• receiving, at the computing device and based on the one or more metrics, an adjustment to the contact point path from a user to obtain a modified contact point path that satisfies a design objective of decreased valve tip wear or decreased valve tick, the modified contact point path causing at least one of the one or more metrics to decrease below a respective predetermined threshold;
• determining, at the computing device, custom contours for the rocker arm pad and the camshaft lobe based on the modified contact point path;
• based on the custom contours for the rocker arm pad and the camshaft lobe, generating, at the computing device, a set of instructions for machining a custom contoured rocker arm pad and a custom contoured camshaft lobe;
• and
• transmitting, from the computing device and to machining components via a network, the set of instructions, wherein receipt of the set of instructions is configured to cause the machining components to machine the custom contoured rocker arm pad and the custom contoured camshaft lobe.