[89rumble]

I broke a pushrod in my mustang yesterday. Not a good day. I have stud-mount adjustable roller rockers with guide plates on trickflow heads. Upon dissassembly i found one broke pushrod and 4 more with significant wear at the guide plate. Rods look old and i guess they are not heat treated hardened steel because of the wear. Plan to flush the engine with kerosene and change oil and filter, as well as add two magnetic drain plugs in an attempt to remove as many metal shavings as possible. I cannot afford a new engine. I also plan to buy some new trickflow heat treated pushrods and re adjust my valves.. My question is how do i bleed down my lifters?

[coolwaterblvd]

After u flush it pull the pan and clean it out especially the pickup tube. The majority of the metal will be in the pan. Also find a good spot in the pan like the front sump, and put a strong bar magnet in it not a small round one.

[89rumble]

Great, thanks for the info. Any ideas on how to bleed down those lifters.

[coolwaterblvd]

Not really but I think u may have push rods that are too long if u have 1.7 rockers u should go to the 1.6's this may let u get away with the length u have now. u should be able to get the lifters out with a good magnet like a 5 or 10 pound telescopic one from sears. But a vise should bleed them fine when u pull them out.

[89rumble]

I'm not sure what ratio my rockers are, but what makes you say my pushrods are too long? I would much rather just buy some new pushrods than buy new rockers and still have to buy new pushrods.

[coolwaterblvd]

Well it is not a good thing having broken push rods there my be another problem. U should be ok putting stock ones in just make sure the length is the same as the ones in the car already. If u have stock springs u may want to put some HD ford racing ones in. If the stock springs are weak and u run high RPM's u can chew up the push rods because the springs cannot keep up with the valves by slapping the pushrods.

I would also replace the lifters in the cylinders that broke the pushrods.

[89rumble]

I think my springs probably came assembled on the trickflow heads and should be stiffer than stock springs. I thought that when guide plates are used you need heat treated pushrods. The rod broke at the guide plate due to it rubbing and weakening the pushrod. The lifter that broke the pushrod had not collapsed and the roller looked fine so i think i was lucky there.

[EagleAutosports]

I've had this same EXACT thing happen earlier this year. Sounds like you might've had stock type pushrods in it, and the slight contact with the guideplate wore it out and it broke. Again, I had this same exact thing happen. Get some hardened pushrods and you'll be fine to just remove the old ones and replace with the new. I see you're in Asheville, Holcomb Motorsports has their own line of pushrods and are as strong as the TFS rods but are half the cost. Just an idea.
You shouldn't need to pull out the lifters to do this but if you put the lifters into a pan full of oil for a few hours and then install, you should be ok.

[89rumble]

That is what i thought. The pushrods looked old and even had old surface rust where they had beed sitting for a while. Two of them were also about .050 longer. Probably what the shop had laying around. They are adjustable rockers so will go back through and re adjust them after i put new hardened pushrods in. Did you get alot of metal shavings from where it wore out your old pushrod? If so, what did you do? Thanks for the tip on holcomb pushrods, but i already have some coming from summit.