Made an Ugly discovery
 

As you may already know, my day at the track Saturday was filled with disappointment. Was going over the motor today trying to figure out what the problem is (had the engine running) and I heard a metalic sounding clank. Then I didn't hear it for a while, then I heard it again. Poked my head into the cockpit and saw the oil pressure guage was only reading 20psi at idle.

My first impression was that the oil pump took a dirt nap. My second impression was that I spun a main bearing. Pulled the oil drain plug and looked for metal shavings - even went fishing inside the pan with on of those telescoping magnets - nothing to speak of showed up.

Decided to pull a valve cover and what do I see you ask? A bent pushrod disengaged from the rocker arm on #4 intake :roll: . Apparently, the locking nut on the adjuster had decided to jump ship and was found lying on a beach in the vacinity of #8 cyl. ](*,)

A mechanic friend of mine adjusted the valve lash for me since I've never had solid lifters before. I don't understand how he could screw it up like that? Yeah, I'm a little pissed off :x

Anyways, that seems to explain the poor performance on the weekend.

What kind of rockers and adjusters? I've had really bad luck with the Crane adjusters on my Crane rockers. How's the adjuster itself look?

Mike, they're Comp Pro Magnum roller rockers. The threads on the locks and adjusters look OK. For some reason, they just backed themselves off. Would it matter if I used 5/16 or 3/8 pushrods? I used the 5/16.

I don't think that would make much of a difference... Looking at the Smith Brother's site, they offer both 5/16 and 3/8 pushrods that work up to 700 lbs open pressure.

:-k Dan, no signs of that at the track, oil pressure, noise?

Well, the whole valve train seemed to get more noisy the more I ran the engine. This is the 1st time I've had adjustable rockers and a solid cam, so I kinda thought it was normal. No oil pressure drops at the track. That happened all of a sudden in my driveway.

I'm just thankfull that I didn't get in a 3rd pass at the track. Just thinking about the carnage that would have resulted makes me ill.

I hear that. Kinda lucky I guess. ](*,)