T&D experts in Chicago-House Call??

[martyb]

Hey all,

Was driving my car home from the office on Friday. Got a few miles from home and the car started missing. The valvetrain had been loud ever since I got the car back from PBJ, I assumed it was the cam, and the fact that the valvetrains on these cars are noisy. I pulled the valve cover on the drivers side, and discovered both pushrods on #7 were bent. I was sick to my stomach, 2500 miles on my new heads/cam package. I ran a scope down the cylinder, looks like brand new. Pulled the oil pan, also looked like brand new from below. It looks like the pushrods are the factory units, which I didn't think could be used with T&D's,maybe I am wrong. So, I need to see if anyone is willing to come over and help me properly measure for new pushrods? I just don't know that I am qualified on such a critical part of the geometry of the engine, and I don't want to get it wrong.

marty

 

[Red Snake]

Hey all,

Was driving my car home from the office on Friday. Got a few miles from home and the car started missing. The valvetrain had been loud ever since I got the car back from PBJ, I assumed it was the cam, and the fact that the valvetrains on these cars are noisy. I pulled the valve cover on the drivers side, and discovered both pushrods on #7 were bent. I was sick to my stomach, 2500 miles on my new heads/cam package. I ran a scope down the cylinder, looks like brand new. Pulled the oil pan, also looked like brand new from below. It looks like the pushrods are the factory units, which I didn't think could be used with T&D's,maybe I am wrong. So, I need to see if anyone is willing to come over and help me properly measure for new pushrods? I just don't know that I am qualified on such a critical part of the geometry of the engine, and I don't want to get it wrong.

marty

Hey Marty,

I am no expert here either but shouldn't you be able to remove one of the unbent ones and measure it? Then you can get some beefier hardened ones in the same size that you already have in there. I don't think very many people are better than PBJ at figuring out the geometry but I could be wrong. My 2 cents.

Hope you get her straightened out.

 

[99 R/T 10]

The stock push rods can be used, just depends on length. They just are not as stong as the aftermarket ones, which is another reason to switch them out. Give Joe a call, see what he thinks.

 

[martyb]

I left a few messages for Joe, waiting to hear back. Both pushrods are bent bad enough that they were just laying to the side of the T&D's. I am trying to figure out what the hell could have caused that?? I was cruising at 2000 rpm when the miss developed. Now I am wondering if the heads should be pulled and thouroghly inspected?

 

[jasontiff]

I threw some 1.7's on with my heads/cam a few weeks ago and in the first few hundred miles I got a loud clanging under the hood that occurred randomly every few seconds, regardless of RPMs. One of my pushrods had come off the rocker arm and was shooting into the valve cover when the lifter would hit it just right.

After fixing it I haven't had any problems. I'm guessing that we just didn't properly secure one of the rocker arms. I have some Comp Cams Magnum pushrods on there if I remember correctly.

Do you think the pushrod was the wrong length and came off the rocker arm, or the power from the motor caused the stock rods to bend and come off? Either way it's a good exercise to go in there and do it yourself when you order new ones. Just ***** to have to tear down your motor after getting it all back together. Good luck!

 

[martyb]

I threw some 1.7's on with my heads/cam a few weeks ago and in the first few hundred miles I got a loud clanging under the hood that occurred randomly every few seconds, regardless of RPMs. One of my pushrods had come off the rocker arm and was shooting into the valve cover when the lifter would hit it just right.

After fixing it I haven't had any problems. I'm guessing that we just didn't properly secure one of the rocker arms. I have some Comp Cams Magnum pushrods on there if I remember correctly.

Do you think the pushrod was the wrong length and came off the rocker arm, or the power from the motor caused the stock rods to bend and come off? Either way it's a good exercise to go in there and do it yourself when you order new ones. Just ***** to have to tear down your motor after getting it all back together. Good luck!

I could understand what happened in our case jason, but both of my pushrods were bent, probably 20 degrees. I have no idea what could have caused them to both bend so badly.

 

[Red Snake]

Just a thought Marty but the lock nut on the T&Ds can work loose. Did you try checking the lock nuts on that cylinder to see if they are still tight?

 

[martyb]

I will take a look at that later Redsnake, although I don't know that even if that happened if it would cause both rods to bend like that. I hope to hear from Joe today with some input.

 

[xlrashn]

Just a thought Marty but the lock nut on the T&Ds can work loose. Did you try checking the lock nuts on that cylinder to see if they are still tight?

If the rocker arm backed off, that would increase the clearance, not tighten it. It sounds like for whatever reason, the clearance was too tight and bent the pushrods. Just my $.02

 

[britospeed]

Do you know what your new spring pressure's are? It could be to much pressure for the stock pushrod at max lift with max rpm.

 

[martyb]

Do you know what your new spring pressure's are? It could be to much pressure for the stock pushrod at max lift with max rpm.

I am waiting to hear from the builder of the heads on the spring rates, valve lengths, and cam specs

 

[martyb]

Just a quick update. First I have to thank Sean Roe and Mike for their outstanding customer service as usual. I had my new pushrods arrive yesterday. Sean walked me through the proper measuring process to ensure the rods were correct, which they were. Greg Good gave me a few tips on rocker adjustments, which worked perfectly, thank you again Greg and Sean, I owe you both a few cocktails. Just took the car out for a quick drive, runs like a champ!!