I received the new rods from Smith Bros. and they look great. IMO the construction and finish is far better than the off the shelf CC rods that I have been using. While .25" shorter they are .2 ozs. heavier.
On with the tale:
While installing the new pushrods I noticed that the #1 intake rod had gone in much further than the others. On further inspection I found that the lifter had come apart! The retaining ring and pushrod seat had come out. I fished these parts out and found the retaining ring to be deformed. When I removed, inspected, and reinstalled the original push rods I must have had the rod off center on the lifter when I tightened down the rocker arm shaft. I distinctly remember hearing a couple of "ting!" when I had started it up after putting it back together. I was very careful when I reassembled to rotate and feel each rod during the assembly process but I must have had 1 ( at least 1) of then off center. I'll be pulling the intake manifold now to do a complete inspection. Hopefully I'll find all the pieces on top (if I haven't already.) My mistake at the very least has cause a whole lot of extra work, and expense. My bad but hopefully this tale will help others to be extra extra careful when working on pushrods. For me personally I will always pull the intake from now on when doing this kind of work. After all how often are you doing this kind of work? Very rarely. This is a 1972 360 with Edelbrock RPM heads and manifold.
Charlie
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