Wait till you see what I find....

bschubarg said

Pushrods where the proper length... 7.500....It was my stupidity of having the exhaust protrude beyond the head deck. Didn't think of that since the piston is .070 in the hole...Live and learn... BTW, the valves where Manley severe duty and surprisingly they survived. The factory pushrods seemed to have taken the brute of the compromise.

But in the aftermath, I learned that 'clay' can be an important component of clearances.... I believe I have some purple PlayDough laying around somewhere.....

Another set of 302 heads are installed that haven't been basterized… Take two...

Click to expand...

I basically made the same mistake you did. On my first 426 Hemi I put in a Crower roller cam with these really neat aluminum roller lifters. Dummy me being the first time not asking anybody how or what to look for I stuck the hydraulic lifter push rods in it and when I tighten down the rocker arms assemblies.

I didn't notice that it shoved all the valves open. I couldn't even crank it over but it bent every pushrod and every valve in the motor. Course they were 11/32 stems on those valves and it was a 13 1/2 to1 motor so it had plenty of Dome on the Pistons.
I've never made the same mistake since. Lesson learned.