bent pushrods?!?! wtf!!

[73goldduster]

slant had been running poorly, really loud ticking, loss of power, rough idle, etc... monday i opened the valve cover to see what was up, and rod for intake #5 was bent pretty bad. i couldn't think what caused this, i haven't revved the motor past 3500 rpm, haven't had any backfires since break-in. (the dist was 180* out, couple of pops till we figured that one out...)
i swapped it out for a spare i had, reset lash, restarted engine... runs just as poor. it's my daily driver, so...
tuesday after shop class i went to my friends house, pulled the valve cover, and took a closer look. seems that rods are tweaked, not pretzled though, on #1 #2 and #3!!!
the engine is recently built with milled head, big cam, stiff springs, offy intake, headers.
my best guess is that the springs are too stiff? i had some posts recently about valve lash, maybe i had it too tight once?
i'm stumped
ps, where can i get new pushrods? besides pick n pull?

 

[tsa_035]

Hey GoldDuster... I have my good fair share of pushrods. However, mine was over rev's... Since you have not done that possible if you have a hollowed pushrod with the springs being stronger may have bent them? That would be my guess.... I am sure you have already checked your valve clearnace and made sure you didn't smack a Piston against the vlave. Did that one too... Bent the rods broke a valve and bent it and put a nice crack in my piston. Got to love our Mopars they will sill run all the way home. Hope this has been helpful.

Dan

 

[VDART]

autozone in wichita, ks had new ones some years ago-- fairly-- cheap-- call around -- someone has osme in stock. Lawrence

 

[Charrlie_S]

I have run a medium cam and dual valve springs, to 7,000rpm and not bent stock pushrods. Since the engine was rebuilt, the things I would look at are:

1) valve guides too tight, especially if the bent pushrods were exhaust.
2) coil bind of the valve springs. This would depend on how big a cam, and which springs were used.
3) The spring retainer hitting the top of the valve guide.
I lean toward number 1 or 3.

On a 225 engine, unless you milled the head a lot, and are running a pretty big cam, I doubt the valves are hitting the pistons. (providing stock pistons and con rods). How much was the head milled, and what are the specs on the cam?

 

[73DusterPunk]

slant had been running poorly, really loud ticking, loss of power, rough idle, etc... monday i opened the valve cover to see what was up, and rod for intake #5 was bent pretty bad. i couldn't think what caused this, i haven't revved the motor past 3500 rpm, haven't had any backfires since break-in. (the dist was 180* out, couple of pops till we figured that one out...)
i swapped it out for a spare i had, reset lash, restarted engine... runs just as poor. it's my daily driver, so...
tuesday after shop class i went to my friends house, pulled the valve cover, and took a closer look. seems that rods are tweaked, not pretzled though, on #1 #2 and #3!!!
the engine is recently built with milled head, big cam, stiff springs, offy intake, headers.
my best guess is that the springs are too stiff? i had some posts recently about valve lash, maybe i had it too tight once?
i'm stumped
ps, where can i get new pushrods? besides pick n pull?

I just had this same problem, except mine ran great, then the next day ran like ****. I wasn't able to figure out what was wrong, so I'm having my Duster towed to the guy who rebuilt my engine on wednesday. If he can give me an answer, I'll let ya know. You should check around for little independent shops before you go to any chain store for push rods- when I was looking for them, every chain store wanted to sell in bulk quantities, not just 12 but 108!
Good luck!