Measuring for pushrods.....how many cylinders do you check to get it right?

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Kern Dog said

I ran a straight edge across the valve stems. In each cylinder, the exhaust valve stem was below the intake by almost .010.
Again, these are Trick Flow heads. He did not resurface them. A machinist could have ground the seats to get an even stem height across the board but neither of us have experienced this before.
This is his first engine build ever. He has done plenty of mechanical stuff but not to this extent. I've never worked with aluminum heads on anything but big blocks.

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I am going to insert this here as you are the OP for this thread. One thing not mentioned at all through this thread is "Rocker Arm Geometry" all rocker arm type engines regardless of pivot and or push rod or not has to have the rocker geometry set first before calculating the push rod length.
This is done on setting up the valves, spring height, etc. It is a visual method with springs off. Determine what the gross lift of the valve will be insert valve make a mark on the stem ant the half lift of the valve , then instell the rocker for that valve open the valve with the rocker to the mark and look at the rocker tip location on the valve it should be at 90* and in the center of the stem. Adjustments are made depending on location inside or outside of center and angle. Another words valve stem height and or rocker shaft "pivot location" needs to be altered.
This affects two things valve guide wear and actual valve actuation from the rocker as designed into the cam, correct lift and duration, if geometry is wrong lift and duration at valve will be wrong.