When you reckon you have the correct adjusters put a thin smear of bearing blue on the balls and fit them into the pushrod cups - give them a slight twist and check the contact area in the pushrod cup, you should have even contact right down into the cup, if they are mismatched you will see it right away.. be sure to use a very thin amount of bearing blue 

Yep, that is the problem!


South Australia

Push rod length is determined by the position that the rocker arms move through.If you vary the lift of the cam or the rocker ratio then you possibly move away from standard lenths.What you need to do is view the action of the rocker from side on through a full cycle to see if the push rods are lifting the rocker too far and not enogh ie the rocker should be moving within the centre range of it's pivot.I did have a tool years ago that fitted SBC for testing this but I haven't seen it for ages.


Gary - 1958 Star Customline and 1940 Ford Deluxe Hotrod

The adjusters were on the 292, i suspect they were replacements.


South Australia

Are you using original or aftermarket adjusters on your rocker arms,  seems like the issue might be in this area, there are some slightly larger ball sizes on some of the new rocker adjusters ...something to watch out for.

Fuel was about two weeks old, and we don't have that ethanol stuff forced on us (yet).

Cups on the new long pushrods are deeper than on any of the others, cam has lift of .440"

Heads have been milled .030", hardened exhaust seats, stainless valves, new valve guide inserts fitted.

Running 105lb springs.

Block has been decked.

Previously had upper cylinder lubricant bottle installed to compensate for unleaded fuel, will hook that up again.

South Australia

Was the fuel fresh when the new engine was fired?  Old fuel will varnish the intake valve stems/guides and cause them the stick.  This in turn typically bends the original style 1/4" intake pushrods but if tubular pushrods are being used, then I can see the cups taking the blunt of the force.  Beyond that, the lifters are the next failure point and having pushrods fail would definitely be preferable to that.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I put in a full new set of long ones from J Mummert, it was one of those that broke the cup.

Plenty of oil to the top end, everything new including outside grooved cam bearings.

Two of the reasons i put in the long ones, to make up for the thickness of the composition 

head gaskets, and i want to keep the trays.

South Australia

when you pre lubed wher you getting oil to all rockers.when i bought my ranchero it had a broken push rod,Reason poor oil flow to rocker arm.Re your push rod delema ,why not remove the trays,which in efect lengthens the push rods.you may want to think about eliminating drain tubes,or at least pinch them off some.if eng. rebuilt i would guess you ar using comp head gaskets,that makes push rods shorter.push rodes are in most cases the result not the problem, good luck

New does not necessarily mean manufactured correctly - I know because I've been there.  I also would not call what you have a set.  That's just a bunch of mismatched pushrods.  Check them all on the ball of the rocker arm before you reinstall them.



Lawrenceville, GA