My 422 smallblock build
Pushrods arrived from Smith Brothers yesterday. Very nice pieces. 3/8 x .083 wall 4130 chromoly. Overall length comes in at 7.280”. My only gripe about them is the shipping charge. They charged me $31 to ship a 4lbs small box of pushrods from Oregon to Pennsylvania via UPS. Maybe it’s out of their control but seems excessive to me. Other than that they are beautiful.
Got a couple installed and lashed to check piston to valve clearance using the clay method. Clearance is in the .300” range both intake and exhaust. That’s great news because I can already see myself going to a higher lift cam in the future.
Avoided potential catastrophe. While lashing the valves, this adjuster gave up the ghost. I was cranking it down and it felt kinda weak like it was beginning to strip the threads so I stopped and backed it off. Removed the adjuster and inspected. Saw what looked like a small sliver of thread from the nut but I couldn’t remove it. Ran it over the wire wheel on the bench grinder and it looked like it was gone. Reinstalled and it ultimately snapped off with very minimal torque. Turns out what I thought was a sliver of thread was actually a tiny crack in the adjuster and the wire wheel just camouflaged it. Replaced it with a spare and finished lashing.
Pushrods arrived from Smith Brothers yesterday. Very nice pieces. 3/8 x .083 wall 4130 chromoly. Overall length comes in at 7.280”. My only gripe about them is the shipping charge. They charged me $31 to ship a 4lbs small box of pushrods from Oregon to Pennsylvania via UPS. Maybe it’s out of their control but seems excessive to me. Other than that they are beautiful.
Got a couple installed and lashed to check piston to valve clearance using the clay method. Clearance is in the .300” range both intake and exhaust. That’s great news because I can already see myself going to a higher lift cam in the future.
Avoided potential catastrophe. While lashing the valves, this adjuster gave up the ghost. I was cranking it down and it felt kinda weak like it was beginning to strip the threads so I stopped and backed it off. Removed the adjuster and inspected. Saw what looked like a small sliver of thread from the nut but I couldn’t remove it. Ran it over the wire wheel on the bench grinder and it looked like it was gone. Reinstalled and it ultimately snapped off with very minimal torque. Turns out what I thought was a sliver of thread was actually a tiny crack in the adjuster and the wire wheel just camouflaged it. Replaced it with a spare and finished lashing.
