Pulled engine before weekend. Had a good look around. Definitely had some debris in there that the bearings took up, nothing major and for sure not the noise. I clearly failed at cleaning...
Anyway, everything looks fine except one thing, the fuel pump pushrod.
Both ends are good, eccentric on cam looks perfect, fuel pump lever is perfect.
The sides are strange. At one end of it the sides just look polished as they would going in an out of a bore.
At the other end though the sides look scored. I dried it off and put it back in and it felt rough going into the bore.
I knew nothing of 440's building this and I probably should have got a new pushrod? Anyone have one make noise?
I also did not like how tight the oil pump drive is. Reading past comments I knew nothing about a mopar bushing needing to be reamed/burnished. The engine had a brand new mopar bushing and i used a new melling drive. When say it was tight I mean toight... I had to tap it out after I took off the oil pump. I will install the bushing that came with the melling drive, its loose uninstalled so I am hopefull it will be ok once squished in block.
Could a drive gear/shaft that is too tight make a racket? No damage to the cam gear, drive gear or shaft that I can see
I get some pics up of the fuel pump rod later
