454 Push Rod

[eightbanger]

Bought a replacement PR today, took the old bent one with me as I know nothing about these things...except that they push and i'd be sure to get the right one, but! the new one is slightly smaller than the old one, the guy checked the parts book again and said that it was definately the correct one.
Am I OK to use this? I thought you had to be exact with these things...he did say that I could just tighten down the rocker further to take up the difference.

[JimKshortstep4x4]

The push rods should be the same length. With a shorter rod the contact of the rocker on the valve stem will be moved toward the pushrod instead of being centered on the valve. Not a good situation. (This assumes that the contact on the valves are centered using the pushrods on the other valves). You might have a case where the push rods have been replaced at one time with longer ones to match the cam lift.

Jim

[eightbanger]

Thanks Jim, I wish I understood the science behind all this, I've been busy Googling trying to find out how you tell the difference between exhaust and intake rods....not that I would understand if I did know the difference.
I have also noticed that two of the shorter rods on the DS are newer, so figuring that those are recent replacements I measured them against my new one and they are the same length, go figure, maybe I should just get a complete new set of rods...but then I have no idea how to go about finding out which is the correct set i'll need.

There are two rod sizes, 8 1/4" & 9 1/4"
New rod on the far left, older replacement in the middle & bent one on the right....

[morgan71]

Do you know why the rod bent? Pushrods can be ordered in many custom sizes, do you know the history of the motor? Did someone possibly install longer pushrods? If there has been custom head or block work that could also effect the length requirement of the PR. Such as if the heads have been milled or the block decked and squared. If all of these are unknowns get yourself a Pushrod length checker and measure what rod you need and order it. It could be that too long of a rod was installed and caused the bend in high RPM?

[too much stuff]

May be time to order up a new set. Without knowing the specs on your engine you should determine if you can use stock or not. Why have the others been changed over time? Have they bent also?

[eightbanger]

Originally Posted by morgan71

Do you know why the rod bent? Pushrods can be ordered in many custom sizes, do you know the history of the motor? Did someone possibly install longer pushrods? If there has been custom head or block work that could also effect the length requirement of the PR. Such as if the heads have been milled or the block decked and squared. If all of these are unknowns get yourself a Pushrod length checker and measure what rod you need and order it. It could be that too long of a rod was installed and caused the bend in high RPM?

I had looked a set of those length checking tools on Summit morgan, seems a good way to go..you know this all started cause I had to pull the cam to find out what the heck I had in there in order to buy the right Torque converter, then the Harmonic Balancer came apart in the removal so I need a new one of those as well, now it's PR's and PR length checkers...$$$$$$$$$$$ & £££££££££££

Originally Posted by too much stuff

May be time to order up a new set. Without knowing the specs on your engine you should determine if you can use stock or not. Why have the others been changed over time? Have they bent also?

It's definately got a mild Comp Cam in there Eric that much is sure, when I removed the pan a couple of years ago I found a whole bunch of broken bits in there so now i'm seeing whats up top it does tie in with what was in the pan.

[72gmguy]

Um, after seeing that last pick I am amazed that the motor runs at all. That is pretty serious to have lifters in the oil pan. If it were mine I would pull the motor at this point to see what really happened in there.

[Rooster's 67]

uh, i dont think those are lifters, apears to be the oil pump driveshaft retainer ring,pieces if cam gear (original style) and pieces of pushrod ends (tube and balls).

really need something to gauge size by, like a ruler or coin.

all in all does not look promising

[eightbanger]

Originally Posted by Rooster's 67

uh, i dont think those are lifters, apears to be the oil pump driveshaft retainer ring,pieces if cam gear (original style) and pieces of pushrod ends (tube and balls).

really need something to gauge size by, like a ruler or coin.

all in all does not look promising

Spot on! pieces of an old DS sleeve, broken & crushed rods and balls.

[Rooster's 67]

something about 30 years or so of experience....lol