Hello all, I just swapped out my original solid 1/4 inch pushrods for the '60-64 5/16 hollow pushrods in my '54 crestline because i had the valve covers off with the motor running after setting a cold lash, and noticed 4 pushrods werent spinning in their holes, and were bent a couple weeks back. NOTE; the ONLY tick i ever heard from this thing was at around 4000 rpms revving it in nuetral, i got a breif valvetrain racket that immediately went away under decel, sounded like a sewing machine other than that. I pulled the rocker shafts one side at a time with the pushrods to make sure i didnt mix anything up, and installed the new pushrods. I didn't have a torque wrench that goes lower than 30, so i put a chinese de-walt 1/2 drive impact on it's lowest setting to torque the rocker shafts lol. i ran em snug without impact action and let the hammer smack as gently as i could till the bolts needed more oomph to turn. Have it set for a .016 lash on intake and exhausts and now it sounds like skeletons having an orgy on a tin roof. I dont know if the pushrod cups are wrong, but i pulled a lash adjuster from the rocker and checked fitment and the wear mark on the adjuster looked flush with the top of the cup. there are the funny wear marks on 3 of the rocker arms where they meet the valve, but ive been lashing it with a reagular lash gauge and it wasnt that loud. may be the rocker shafts but it's not like they're flopping around or overtourqued, at least i dont think....Imma buy a smaller torque wrench tomorrow to verify but i wanna see what yall think, it's insane to me how quiet it was with BENT PUSHRODS and now it sounds like its gonna nuke itself with straight ones, might try and get some pictures of the cup to ball fitment aswell. any thoughts are appreciated!
This old pushrod post on yblocksforever might help out. But if you’ve got a “wear” pattern showing a ball/socket fit ir riding on the edge, something’s wrong. In the past, I’ve split the socket on pushrods from that. Not to mention what might have been changed (plugged shafts and rockers aren’t exactly rare on old yblock). http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic106970.aspx
Thanks for the reply, i've thumbed through that forum post before i bought the pushrods to make sure i got the right length for the right years, but the eaton balancing links about valvetrain geometry jogged me back to this post here http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic138310.aspx SIDE NOTE; i ordered an elgin PR-71s pushrod set from ebay, and i got PEP 17h004b sent to my door. im beginning to think these are 56-59 pushrods? cant find PEP website anywhere though, and the PN cross refrences, at least on one website lol. my rocker adjusters were almost all the way down like his, seems like the drip trays for the rocker shafts may need to be removed so i can get my better rocker arm ratios. the cups seem like they were in the same spot as marko's but it doesnt hurt to check, still tripping me out that the new pushrods are longer than the bent one, probably had that adjuster further down and didnt notice, didnt notice any of my lash adjusters till i browsed that forum and remembering the carbon fighting me at the tops of the adjuster lmao. Also the aforementioned wear mark on the adjuster, it was the mark that it had with the original pushrods, just a clean spot and dirty spot, no noticeable taper or reshaping of adjuster, and the new cups were seal-sticking to the adjusters that were wet like the lifters, now that i'm thinking about it, it almost does sound like the pushrods may be slapping between the lifter and the rocker
Yooo, I got 'er dialed! I was setting the valve lash wrong the whole time lmao. after i pulled the rocker shafts again and removed the oil trays, i re-installed the rocker shafts with a fresh torque wrench set for 15 ft-lbs and went in for the lash. I was screwing up the "heel of the cam" method, i was doing a valve right when the opposing one got pushed down and did the same with the other, instead of doing the exhaust right when the intake's almost shut and the intake right when the exhaust opens, so half of my valvetrain was tight while the other half may have been about .060 out lmao. wrote it down on the top of the inside of the hood so i don't forget, this is only the second car and engine that i've worked on myself, the first being a vintage block trenton 2.2 4 banger in a '90 dodge shadow. I appreciate the input miker, now i've got nice pushrods and extra valve lift in the ole Y!
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