I had the heads rebuilt about 6 months ago on my '72 302. When I put it all back together I had to use the shorter pushrods because the heads had been milled. Now today I did a compression check and found one of the cylinders down compared to the rest. When I back the rocker arm nuts off a turn the compression matches the other cylinders. This would seem to indicate that even with the shorter pushrods it is still keeping the valves open a little. This brings up a couple of questions:

Why, after 6 months would this problem be appearing?
Is there something funny going on with the lifters?
From what I understand there is only one step shorter pushrod available and that is the one I have. What do I do now? Could I use a self-locking nut and adjust it that way?

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance

 

I'm not sure what your solution is but you might find an answer on the 302 engine forum.