Last Monday, I determined that the shafts need to be shimmed; the tip moves outboard. So I've picked up some arbor shims which will allow increments of about .025". I also swapped my remaining good pushrods from my old set.



Here are some pictures showing the differences of the newer compared to the older.

You can see the difference in the size of the cup. The balls are different but both measure .360". The part numbers are the same. Maybe the newer ones were a "better" idea.










Lawrenceville, GA

     

(quote) If Mellings (& others) use effective length & Clevite uses overall length, now we're are trying to compare apples & oranges....Ford and others use overall length, seems melling is one of the few that use effective length, just goes to show when you order one has to ask many questions.

The picures above: left to right are new Elgin pushrod, original 57 Merc 312 pushrod, next original 56 Ford 272 pushrod (note larger cup head OD on the 57 vs 56 beside it) and furthest right NOS E&F code pushrod.

I had a little time today to do some measurements on pushrods, these measurements maybe not 100% accurate as I used a vernier caliper.

New Elgin pushrod overall 8.131", socket depth 0.150", effective length 7.981" 

Original 57 merc  pushrod 8.139", socket depth 0.145", effective length 7.991"

Original 56 272 pushrod 8.10", socket depth 0.113", effective length 7.986"

NOS Ford E&F code pushrod  8.068", socket depth 0.187", effective length 7.881" 

You can see all the pushrods except the E&F code pushrod are within +/- ).005"  of each other

The Melling effective length of 7.967 would be slightly shorter by 20 thou +/- 5 thou

The E&F cade pushrod is about 30 thou shorter overall however is  about 100 thou shorter on effective length as it has a very deep socket of 0.187"    

One thing I thought about is does the Dove rocker has a recess above the socket ball to allow clearance for the pushrod to have free movement when the valve is in max open position. If it does not have this clearance when valve is fully open the cup could become very leveraged  and break as the pictures show. I don't have Dove rocker to compare and the pictures do not show the adjuster stud and ball clearly.

marv

Ted,

From your article, it sounds like the first thing I need to do is observe how the roller is traveling across the valve tip. That will tell me if I have to shim or trim the pedestals. When you are setting the geometry, how much do you change the height at one time?

Now that I'm focused on the geometry, I took a closer look at the pattern on the stems. It is slightly off center - the pattern is shifted towards the exhaust side of the heads. Does this tell me anything regarding the geometry?



I measured the adjusters on my dove rockers. They have a .361" diameter.


Lawrenceville, GA

Thanks Marv for posting that info. That helps a lot.

                                 Michael

Michael

Sandy Valley, NV

Found some factory info about Elgin pushrods:

http://catalog.elginind.com/app/Engine.asp?mfg=FORD+PRODUCTS&model=080&cat=Push+Rod



BTW, they offer also two different length of oil pump intermediate shafts:

http://catalog.elginind.com/app/Engine.asp?mfg=FORD+PRODUCTS&model=080&cat=Oil+Pump+-+Intermediate+Shaft


Tero from Nurmijarvi, Finland

56 Country Sedan, 61 F-100, 61 F-600, 55 F-620, 52 Mercury

http://www.dlc.fi/~teros

http://www.y-block.info

http://www.hollowheads.net

http://www.fordnationals.net

Just measured new Elgin PR-73S pushrods cup and the widest diameter is 0.364". Total length of the pushrod is about 8.1" and cup depth is about 0.16". Then I measured the diameter from new adjusting screw ball and it is 0.360".


Tero from Nurmijarvi, Finland

56 Country Sedan, 61 F-100, 61 F-600, 55 F-620, 52 Mercury

http://www.dlc.fi/~teros

http://www.y-block.info

http://www.hollowheads.net

http://www.fordnationals.net

Marv:

One of your statements caught my eye.  The mopar pushrod.  I wonder if the ball cup on a mopar pushrod is the wrong size, and whoever decided their mopar rods would fit Y blocks were only looking at length.  If the cup was too small, the ball would keep trying to wedge itself into the cup and possible finally fracture it.  I measured a used Y ball a couple days ago, it's .360" diameter.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

If Mellings (& others) use effective length & Clevite uses overall length, now were are trying to compare apples & oranges.. Anyway, looking in Eickman's Y-Blk book, the shortest pushrods, (7.95" aprox) were used in E & F code engines apparently. The photo of them looks suspiciously like the damaged ones. Maybe they are to short for the application?. Some 1954-55 original long ones, at 8.11" (aprox.) are marked at the top with two ridges. 1956-59 are listed at 7.98" aprox. However, non of these are tubular as far as I know. Also Ford listed a H.D. replacement pushrod for E & F code use, # B7A-6565-A. No dimensions given however... Also, J. Mummerts lists 3 lengths & says to order by head year. Obviously if the engine has been decked or heads planed, the issue gets more involved.... Don't know if any of this helps, but I hope so..

Paul

         Didn't know that, always thought it was just effective length. guess I never bought any Clevite pushrods.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

The length would be the effective length. (ie) from the bottom of the socket to the tip of the ball.

Melling uses effective length, Clevite uses overall length.

marv