Do '98's have weaker pushrods?
 

Is there any evidence to suggest that the 98 cars have weaker pushrods than the 99 and newer?

The reason I ask is after reading a few articles about how the 1998's had overly sensitive knock sensors I began to think of replacing mine just for the hell of it while doing an intake swap.

But then I came across an article on Installuniversities website about tracking down knock retard on a 1998 they pretty much returned the car completely to stock and ran something like 97 octane through it to try to determine the cause of knock.

They tore into it and found the pushrods were bent, what I'm wondering is, and maybe this is a little far fetch'd but maybe there is really nothing wrong with the knock sensors on the 98's but rather an issue with weaker pushrods bending more often and leading to knock retardation.

I have read other posts that somewhat support this idea and the fact that the guys at installuniversity.com completely eliminated knock retard after changing the bent pushrods and retaining stock knock sensors only lends more support to this theory of mine.

Is there any evidence to support this idea? opinions ?

i had pushrod bend in three places and then finally snapped in half.. that was a while ago, it cause the car to misfire bad

What mods at the time ?

headers, ory, catback, gears, lid

interesting any notable missed shifts or overrevs or anything ?

I would like to try to gather as much information as possible about 98's with bent pushrods to try to gain a general concensus as to whether my theory is plausible or not.

My buddy has a green 98 hardtop with over 40 track passes with spray, as well as multiple usage on the street for pressure and hose integrity testing. The car now sits idle for months as its retired until new Longblock funding adds up. Rev limiter bumping on spray and over worked pushrods are his as the valvetrain remains stock at 100,000 miles, 50k miles of which were mixed NA powerband pulls and nitrous as well. However, there is no tick or audible knock from his. Just a tired sounding valvetrain and oil consumption. Most of which occurs while the system is armed. Some 1998's receiving more integrally sound pushrods is a chance.

i never over revved or anything, well i did about 10 k miles before it acted up, that could have weakend it

Anyone else ?

I have a 98 with hardened pushrods and lots of knock retard. I think mine is false and picked from valvetrain noise. I may have a slight interference issue with pushrods and head from the 1.8 rockers. Will check this weekend.

Stock knock sensors ?

took mine out at 108K and they were perfect...