badazz99ta

iTrader: (13)

hey folks. i just pulled out all of my pushrods to see if they were bent. i was reading on ls1howto.com to see how to do it. it said before you take the rocker arms out, find which cylinder is fully compressed. to me it looked like the number 5 cylinder. so i put the number 5 cylinder pushrods and rocker arms on first. but when i put them on the spring was going down and i thought if it was fully compressed that it wouldnt go down. i thought the bolt would just tighten. so my question is if i just go ahead and tighten everything else down will my car mess up when i start it up. or is this step very important. and no pushrods were bent. which isnt good. cuz the ticking noise isnt and exhaust leak, arcing plug wire, pushrods, or vaccum leak, then its probably a lifter which is what i didnt want. cuz i dont have the money to do that right now. thanks for the help.

Screamin_Z

iTrader: (2)

if I'm getting u correctly the reason for checking the rocker/pushrod on a TDC piston is so u can check the "movement" on the pushrod so u can shim the rocker or get shorter pushrods. since u have changed ONLY the pushrods u should be fine. if u went with a head that's been decked and like a thinner head gasket or bigger cam then this would be a concern. if ur pushrod length is too short then u will get ALOT of noise and ur valves wouldn't open all the way. if ur pushrod length is too long and u don't shim the rockers then ur valves will never close and u could possibly run into piston/valve slap. by TQing the rocker down with the pushrod installed and it does not compress the springs u can check this. I suggest wearing a CLEAN rubber glove so u can grab the pushrod and if it turns a lil then ur good to go. if u cannot turn it (and if it slightly compressed the spring) then ur pushrod length is too long and u need to shim the rockers or get shorter pushrods. if it moves quite a bit then ur pushrod length is too short so u need to get longer ones. u do not need to do this on every one. just do it on one intake and exhaust rocker/pushrod...the rest will be the same. DO NOT over TQ the rockers, u could break the stand and that head is trashed. use a lil threadlock on the bolts and u'll be fine.

badazz99ta

iTrader: (13)

well everything went good, except for stripping the rear driver side bolt hole. so im going to get a heli coil and see if i can fix it. thanks for the info.