my 64 bent 17 pushrods in total by the time i got it running. it had sat in a feild a long time and the valves kept sticking. im guessing thats what the problem is. it probably had some gunk that get mixed around and stuck the valves.

 

Can someone do the math on this?

 

it would bend one or two at a time repeatedly. lol

 

16 Pushrods in a V8?

 

My question is how did you figure out that they were bent? and how badly bent were they?

 

finding out they were bent was easy. it would be running fine and then one or two of the valves would stick and bend those pushrods and a distinct ticking noise would start coming from motor. pull the valve cover and free up the valves and replace pushrods. few days later repeat.

 

Do you think the pistons tagged the valves bending them too? Are you over revving it? What are you doing to free up the valves when they stick? You may have to pull the head to fix it properly and make sure the valves are not bent.

 

I agree! Not checking the valves properly is asking for trouble!

 

I wanted to rehash this thread to say Thanks for the help on this one. It hasn't bent any pushrods in about 2 years. I let the truck sit for about 8 months and during this time I rebuilt the carb. The carb was extremely dirty! It had gunk you could scrape up with your finger like mud.
I also changed the fuel filter which was horrible as if it had been dipped in mud. It was so dirty, that leads me to believe this was the cause. Also after getting the truck going after sitting and after the rebuild it has a loud lifter tap. Could this have been caused by a combination of bad gas and sitting for so long?

I have never delt with a lifter tap, how should I go about addressing it?

Thanks