All right, so I put the new push rods in, cranked the engine, and just loosened each rocker until it started the tick, and then I tightened it down until it stopped, probably less than a half a turn each one. I did this for every rocker, on both sides.
It seems to run way better, I have zero issues with any type of Rod knock like I thought initially. The only concern I have is the lack of oil pressure at the rockers. The truck says 50 pounds of oil pressure idling, but then later it will drop to 35. While it’s sitting at 50, I’m just getting an oozing of oil out of the push rods that kind of cascades down the springs. There is absolutely no streams of oil shooting out like I would think there would be. That’s on the passenger side. On the driver side it’s slightly more flow, enough to spill out onto the headers. The oil pump was new when I did the cam.
I should add that I had to take at least three or four full turns out of most of the rockers to get them to tick. They must’ve been way way way over tightened. Except for the ones that ruined the push rods, of course.
As far as driving the truck, it’s like a whole different truck. It’s actually a great pleasure to drive now. Lift off the clutch, press the gas, it’s almost effortless now whereas before you had to rev the engine super high while feathering the clutch to make it go. In between shifts is a dream. At highway speeds it’s nice and quiet. It really is fun to drive now. If I can figure out why it’s not getting more oil to the top that would be great, or maybe that’s just what it’s going to be for this old thing I don’t know. I still like the idea of getting the other 350 that I sold my buddy and building it on the side for this thing.
Did these YouTube links work for any of y’all?
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