Speedmaster rockers

Les Gibson said
That's a lot of great information and I appreciate it. I should probably give you more info about my combination. I'm running W2 Econo heads which I believe are 810 castings. Banana groove rocker shafts with the previously mentioned Norris stainless roller rockers, 1.6 ratio. For cam I'm running a Comp Cams solid roller, gross lift is .654 intake, .655 exhaust, duration @ .050 is 269 intake, 276 exhaust, installed at 106.0 intake center line. Comp Cams roller lifters. I currently have Smith Brothers 3/8 diameter pushrods with .120 wall thickness, no oil hole, length currently is 7.4375, or 7 7/16s.
If I'm interpreting your info correctly I shouldn't be running 3/8s push rods with these W2 Econo heads, but 7/16s? I don't have any clearance issues with the 3/8s as it appears the push rod holes in these heads have been enlarged.
I'll have to take a look at these Norris rockers to check the location of the oil hole in relation to the adjuster threads. I'll do that when I get home from work today. I also know that the adjusters are turned down more than your calculations show to get proper valve lash settings, which led me to believe that the push rods I am currently using are too short. I'll post a picture of one this evening.

If you don’t mind, can you take a close up picture of the oil feed hole? I’m pretty sure Norris put the hole where it should be and we can compare the two oil hole locations.

As far as pushrods go, the Chrysler stuff doesn’t follow the same rules as other engines.

For one thing, on the SB you have the 59 degree lifter bank angle so the lifter doesn’t even push the pushrod in a straight line. Any time you have a column (say a pushrod for example) in compression and you have the load not running through its axis (centerline) then that column loses some of its old carrying capabilities.

Now add to that the roughly .800 offset for the W2 rocker and you have a column under compression load out of plane in two directions.

I can’t remember exactly where I found the math to calculate how much reduction there is in load carrying when you are out in two planes but it was quite a bit.

That’s why all the pushrod manufacturers think you can use what you’d use in a small block Chevy and it just isn’t so.

That’s why when I read that you have adjusters backing off the first thing I thought of was pushrods. Even if you can’t see witness marks where the pushrods are bending and touching something doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Your pushrods are most likely doing something similar to pole vaulting. It bends under initial loading and at some point it has to return to its original state. That bending and unbending has stored energy and it has to go somewhere.

One interesting thing I noted when I finally got the pushrods stiff enough was the engine was quieter but the lash was more audible. The constant loading and unloading of the pushrods was making a noise that you wouldn’t know if you didn’t stop it. Once the pushrods got stiffer, that peculiar sound went away and the lash became more pronounced.