Ok, this has been bothering me ever since I got my car back from the shop. I brought it in to have heads/cam/headers installed. I mentioned plenty of time that I wanted to upgrade to stronger pushrods. Well, apparently the mechanic took a look at the stock pushrods and left them in, saying "these will be just fine". I don't have a large cam, but my numbers are coming up lower than I expected.

Questions: Will the stock pushrods be safe to run? Also, anyway they could be affecting my power?

 

Hardend pushrods are fairly cheap and if he was doing a head and cam swap i see no reason why he wouldnt have suggested an ubgrade?

 

they shouldn't be deflecting enough to cause a power loss but i would definitely put in some good ones if it was my car.

 

They were definitely on my list. Like I said, when I found out he didn't upgrade the pushrods, I was mad. Just wondering if it is worth it to go back in and swap in better pushrods. What all is involved in swapping out the pushrods?

 

i tried to save 100 bucks by using the stock push rods last year, costed me a long long trip back from chicago, wasted money on the dyno, wasted head gasket, one ls7 lifter = probably 500-600 bucks

 

i reused stockers but im only shifting at 6200rpms. in a high spinner i would do it no questions asked.

 

i would definately go change them

the swap is very easy, remove valve covers, rocker arms then pull the old ones out & put in new

 

Your mechanic is a dipshit. If you know a part should be upgraded make them do it, don't let them talk you outta it. It's not worth risking a bent pushrod b/c a ill informed mechanic said it would be ok.

 

What kind of springs are you running? Theyre probably heavier than LS6 springs judging by the size of your cam. Id upgrade them.

 

If your running stronger springs than stock then pushrods IMO must be upgraded. Does your mechanic do hi-po stuff?

 

Its not just a matter of being bent its flex as well.

Maybe he felt you werent using a much stronger spring and didnt see the need, not sure, cant speak for him. But you should swap them out. You can do this yourself.

 

You can swap them out pretty easily man. I'd do it if I were you. They aren't expensive at all relative to what you could be paying for if one of them fails.

 

swap them out. a lot more rides on your pushrod than you think..

 

BIGMIKE: I didn't let him talk me out of it. I left my car while I was at work a few days. I would check in to see progress and find out if any issues came up. Everytime I spoke with them I would mention putting in stronger pushrods. They would tell me, "we'll look at your stock rods and see if they will be okay". That is where I would say "Either way, I would like to upgrade to stonger pushrods". Then when I picked my car up and paid, I noticed no pushrods on the bill. I asked them about it and they told me the stock ones will be fine.

These guys actually do a lot of High Performance work. They race Pro-Mod and Pro-Street. Every weekend they are off to some drag strip somewhere.

Since I don't have any of the proper tools, spare time, and this is my only car, I don't know if I would be able to do this myself.

Another question I have is: When swapping the pushrods, how far away would I be from being able to throw a new cam in? I assume there is still a lot to take off to get the engine broken down enough to do a cam swap, but I am unexperienced with this stuff.

 

And for the springs, I believe they are the Patriot Gold Duals that come with the assembled heads...

 

Since I don't have any of the proper tools, spare time, and this is my only car, I don't know if I would be able to do this myself.

All you do is remove the valve covers and unbolt the rockers. Pull the old one out drop the new one in and rebolt to 22 ft lbs. turn the motor over a few times with out starting it and re-torque. Very easy to do.

Another question I have is: When swapping the pushrods, how far away would I be from being able to throw a new cam in? I assume there is still a lot to take off to get the engine broken down enough to do a cam swap, but I am unexperienced with this stuff

Not even close. but cam swap is not hard to do. I rent a cam swap tool package to make it easier as well as sell custom Comp cams. You will need to pull apart the front of your engine which means taking a bunch of stuff off.
Look at the water pump. The cam is behind it so you need to remove the waterpump just to get to the timing cover. Radiator as well the cam is long and you need to pull it out the front. Then you have the crank pullley to deal with then your in.

Good write up here on how to do it

http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=23

 

If the heads are milled in any way the stock ones could be killing performance.

 

If they build race motors they should have known better. I wouldn't take my car to a shop that wouldn't install parts I request just b/c they "believe" it'll be alright. Thats bad business.

And why are you switching cams already?? In your first post you said they installed H/C/LT's. Just doin pushrods your not anywhere close to another cam swap. You would still need to remove the balancer, front timing cover, cam retainer plate, water pump, front belts, then get some dowls to keep the lifters from falling when you pull the current cam out.

 

I did just do the cam, was just thinking if I needed to strip it down enough, might want to go bigger already. But since that is not the case, I will not be swapping the cam.

The heads are milled and CNC ported (I believe). I just don't want to a) Have to worry about the pushrods when I spin it to high RPM's and b) Have to pay someone labor to install the pushrods.

I am sure it is not difficult to do the pushrods, I just don't want to get half-way there and run into some kind of issue.

 

Its as easy as changing your plugs, if not easier. Take the valve covers off. Rocker are right there plain as day. Unbolt them. The pushrod floats freely. Pull it up with your finger and thumb grasping it firmly as its cover in oil. Lift it out and drop the new one in. Its that simple. Bolt rockers down to 22ft lbs use loctite. Crank engine over without starting it re-toque. Put valve covers back on go wash hands and then hi 5 yourself for saving money and doing it yourself. Next you can tackle the cam after you gain some confidence. Your just swapping pushrods for the same size ones.