I'm interested in the spring rate as well, I did a mock up for my last engine and went with 3/8" rods as the stockers when starting on opening the valve during the stand/test caused the rods to deflect about an 1/8" which casued binding in the peanut plug holes (mind you I'm using the enginebldr dual springs)...Geometry was correct and had no impact but the compressed spring load was more than stock rods could take...

Smith Brother moly pushrods...no deflection, no problems.

-D.Idiot

In the picture the top of the head does looked parched however there was heaps of clean oil there through, on the rockers and shaft, on the valve stems heaps of oil on the lifters and under the rocker cover. Rocker shaft and rockers are rebuilt ones from rockerarms.com. The shaft is on correct with the flat at the front and the long bolt on the back.

I'm not sure of the name but I know the seals are a teflon variety obviously stock ones wont fit due to the double springs, Ill take a picture tomorrow and post it. I pulled the valves off number 1 piston intake and exhaust and the there is no damage or any sign off hitting the seal or the retainer. The retainers arn't stock there moly ones, maybe I got lucky here with the clearance.

However i put another 2 stock push rods to replace the bent ones so I could measure the lash. I got 0.020 on the intake and 0.026 on the exhaust, maybe 50 year old rods, bad lash, 6000 rpm, bad fuel don't mix too well.

Next step moly rods, set the lash correctly, drain the tank, clean the filter, inspect carbi. Check to see if oil is squirting out of the rockers once its started.

When you say you removed the #1 intake and exhaust valves does that mean the head is off or maybe you just removed the springs with the head still on the car? If the head is still on do the valves move up and down freely? As I remember Engle specifies .020 and .022 lash which isn't far off. If enough oil isn't going to the valve gear maybe the valves are hanging up in the guides. There have been problems with the locations of the oil passages in the rear cam journal not allowing enough oil topside. I doubt you could have driven 3000 miles with no oil there but if it is too restriced it could cause valve guide problems over time. That cam has a very high rate of lift and you definately need stronger push rods. The Hyper Pak kit which used a single spring with less pressure than you have came with stronger push rods.

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If you didn't drive it there, it's not a street car.

Ok did all the inspections and everything looks sweet. I set up two standard push rods for now to do some measuring before my smith brothers push rods come in the mail. My only issue is, is this enough oil like a few have suggested to me which could be the problem.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=r4Uqs9vvoQI

Oh also a friend of mine is building a 170 hyper pack with a 0.440" lift cam engn bldr valves and 340 springs. Before he completes the build should even bother putting back in the stock rods or put some chrome moly rods instead. I have read that on the original hyper pak package stronger push rods were offered for the 170. The car will be used on the occasional blitz but not a drag car.

A set of pushrods is cheap enough to do whether you really need them or not. They will not hurt anything for sure.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Did you confirm that you have good rocker arm to valve geometry? (ie, rocker contact "patch" is roughly centered on valvestem tip at half-lift). I had a 225 running a Hughes cam (about .510" lift) & I didn't check geometry. which was off & resulted in side-load on the valves, abnormal wear of the guides & enough bind that a couple pushrods "fell out" then bent at 4500 rpm.

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63 Valiant Wagon
225 - 4 bbl

The rocker contact patch looks to be centred perfect the whole lift so I don't think I have side play. I'm not experienced with bent push rod forensics but to be it seems that one bent and the other got pushed out. I am starting to lean towards not enough oil. It takes a while for the oil to get to the rockers and when it gets there I have a small dribble come out but no fast flow or squinting. I might rigg up a oil pressure gauge and see what I have got. I also might try the original rocker shaft, I've currently got on the one on from rocker arms.com see if that makes any difference.

My smith brothers push rods arrived today, beautiful. Anyway so I started removing the rockers and push rods, well i didnt just bend 2 i bent 7 in total, 2 totally bent but 5 others clearly were bowed. this clearly concerned me so i did some more measuring.

I installed the new push rods torqued the rocker shaft to 30 ft/lbs and roughly set the lash .010 on intake and .015 on ex. with engine warm. I then set the lash to zero on number one intake valve, and set up a dial indicator to get maximum lift. Once i reached max lift I adjusted the rocker arm nut as much as it would go so the retainer hit the valve seal. I got a total of 7 1/4 turns.
I then turned the engine to get zero on the dial indicator, I then backed off the the nut 7 1/4 turns to check out the gap between the rocker arm face and the top of the valve stem and i had at least 3mm, that im sure is plenty of clearance so hopefully no valves or retainers knocking. Plenty of oil was also dribbling out the rockers and the push rods were also spinning.

One thing for sure is the engines idle is a lot smoother I will see how she performs this weekend. Well I guess double valve springs high lift cams and 6000 rpm don't mix well with stock 50 year old push rods. Touch wood hopefully I dont bend anymore.

This looked like a good place to post this. I have a 1967 Valiant, with a 225. Just had it rebuilt, everything is stock. Got it in, drove about 50 miles. Went out next morning and it had a bad miss. Wanted to verify TDC on #1 so i pulled the valve cover to watch valve movement. #1 and #6 intake push rods where bent. After replacing I bumped over in short bursts. While holding down on the rocker, on the push rod side, the valves are coming up realy slow, some times they snap back up. geting lots of oil. However, it did sit for several years and had leaded gas, i have put in half a tank of fresh gas 2 times. My question is: Is the fule the problem? Or should i contact the mechanic who built the engine?

Best bet is the old fuel.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Ok, today is the day to drop the gas tank. Any advice on best way to clean out the old varnish on the bottom. By the way, my fule filter looks like it has tea runing through it HAHA! Second question:What is a good way to clean the valve stems? Do i need to pull the intake and exhaust manifolds?