Dammit.

[mrltd]

Fucking motor needs longer pushrods. Looks like the stock pushrods are too short and that is the cause of the valvetrain noise I have. And since I have no money and no place to work at this point the car will just get parked without tags on it until spring/summer. Also probably why it's a little lazy under 2K and why it has idle issues.

[DuceAnAHalf]

seems like it would be the other way around. id think pushrods that are too short would tame the cam. and then run out of steam at high RPM when the valves are not opening fully. Are you using stock legnth now? there is probalby another vehicle that uses a pushrod legnth you need.

[mrltd]

Well, it runs decent, but the pushrods are definately a tad too short. Will have to get the adj pushrod and measure what I need and buy them. Probably only like 60 bucks, but I have no money to spare and working in the snow sucks. I hardly have any time to do anything anyway with the move coming up. And I'm just pissed. I could have saved 350 bucks and this headache by just putting in a stock HO cam. But I wanted more. And I got more. More headaches.

Oh well. Gonna go throw the intake back on...

[DuceAnAHalf]

too bad you run FI otherwise swapping pushrods is a pretty easy task. FI motors take another what 10-15 minutes over a carb'd motor? We have a set of pushrods laying around but im sure they would be too short. Are your heads stud mount or pedestal?

[mrltd]

Pedestal. Everything is factory stock on the motor but the valvesprings and camshaft. It only takes a few minutes to swap, prolly like an hour and a half total. It's the measuring and getting it right that takes the time. I could prolly guess that I need .060 over rods. They are dirt cheap-only cost like 10-15 more than the adjustable rod for measuring. I thought the cam wasn't a small base circle cam, but I guess it is.


It's also got a coolant leak I can't track down. Almost seems like it's the heater core again, but I'm not seeing any coolant inside the cabin. None of the hoses are leaking either. Leaves it with the intake manifold or timing cover. No coolant in the oil though.

[DuceAnAHalf]

Pedestal. Everything is factory stock on the motor but the valvesprings and camshaft. It only takes a few minutes to swap, prolly like an hour and a half total. It's the measuring and getting it right that takes the time. I could prolly guess that I need .060 over rods. They are dirt cheap-only cost like 10-15 more than the adjustable rod for measuring. I thought the cam wasn't a small base circle cam, but I guess it is.


It's also got a coolant leak I can't track down. Almost seems like it's the heater core again, but I'm not seeing any coolant inside the cabin. None of the hoses are leaking either. Leaves it with the intake manifold or timing cover. No coolant in the oil though.

what about into the exhaust? My brothers car was leaking coolant into an exhaust port, when someone got too greedy while porting. maybe a small hole or crack has developed.

As for the cam, is it possible to have the pedestals milled down? or will that make them too short and throw off the geometry?

[mrltd]

That would suck if the heads were cracked. They aren't ported. Untouched. Guess it could have a wasted head gasket from sitting for 10 years before being started. More likely that it has something to do with a gasket I installed though.


Pedestals could probably be milled, but would cost at least 5 times what the pushrods would.(because of HG's, intake gaksets, etc...) I'll just get the correct pushrods for the motor in the spring.

If I take it off the road, I'll save a bunch of $$ in insurance, and won't have to worry about my license being suspended due to not passing emissions. And I don't have to worry about the emissions test until I get the car running correctly. The money I save can be put to saving up to build a garage.

[89LincolnTWNcar]

i feel your pain about the coolant leak. Mine is leaking out the back dripping off the transmission housing, and pooling in the timing cover grooves on both sides of the engine. So I have to pull my timing cover and everything, but while im in there I'm gonna swap cams to HO and throw on some injectors and an EEC

[DuceAnAHalf]

what exhust is on the car right now? Does it leak all the time or only when running?

[Mercracer]

If you checked lifter preload, you would know how long to get the pushrods. When you bolted down your pedestals, you should be using the closed valve method so that you know what your preload is. By knowing how many turns of the bolt you made to just get it snug after making contact with the lifter plunger, you would know where you are.
You do not need an adjustable pushrod in this case. You can make your own if it makes you feel better and you do not wnat to spend the money. You take a factroy pushrod and cut a chunk out of it. You take a piece of threaded rod and thread it into the 2 pushrod halves.
When I put roller rockers on 3 different motors, one was a 91 Mustang HO block and the other 2 were Explorer shortblocks, they all needed longer pushrods. I used Comp Cams 7752-16 pushrods which are 6.300" long.

[Mercracer]

I thought the cam wasn't a small base circle cam, but I guess it is.

That is a standard base circle cam intended for 1.7 ratio rockers.

[85crownHPP]

that would be cool if you could figure out how to adjust the cam lift by running different length pushrod sets - if it would even work.

[mrltd]

I thought the cam wasn't a small base circle cam, but I guess it is.

That is a standard base circle cam intended for 1.7 ratio rockers.

The grind I got is for 1.6 rockers. There are 2 different grinds of the XE264HR. The grind # is 35-349-8 is what I have. The 35-320-8 is for 1.7 rockers.

[gadget73]

Just curious, how does one determine the proper pushrod length, by measuring the lifter preload at a specific rocker arm torque and adjusting the length of the pushrod to obtain the needed preload?

[mrltd]

well, been looking around at pushrods and stuff. Haven't pulled the car apart again yet to check the length I need. Instead of longer pushrods I was thinking about Comp cams pedestal roller rocker. It's got adjustment in the pushrod cup. I'm thinking it would kill 2 birds with one stone. I could get the adjustment I need to fix the lash, and I could get some nice roller rockers and free up a little bit of HP.

The only thing is the 350 dollar price tag...