Roger that!
I ran across a jpg file of exactly what rocker assembly mine is (I got it off the Autozone repair procedures website, and it says it is for a 7.5L engine, but...)
I don't think I can post the picture here, but I can email it to you if you want. Or go to:
http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us...rInfoPages.htm
and scroll down to the 7.5L engine.

 

Thanks, wrenched, my turn to learn something. I'd do a collapsed-lifter test to see if you have your lifters in the proper part of their travel. (I hope you still only have air in your lifters - if not, it takes a lot of pressure held for a while to bleed them down. Ford has a special tool.) You just push down on the pushrod end of the lifter, and collapse the lifter completely and see what the space between the other end of the rocker and the valve-stem end is. (Keep the rocker seated on its pivot.) I do not know the spec for your engine, but you can find that out here or from a manual. (Do this with each cylinder on compression TDC.) If you do not have enough clearance, then you will need some of those short pushrods after all.

 

Glad I could do some teachin' in return for all my learnin'.
Guess I can pull off the valve cover and do the test. Better that way than to fire it up and learn the hard way that I need more pushrods! (and O'Reilley's probably won't let me return any crooked ones )

 

I did the collapsed lifter test, and sure enough the gap is too small. Should be .125 - .175 (from Haynes), and none of the new pushrods are giving me over .090. I didn't measure all of them yet, but even the old pushrods that I'm reusing seem to be tight. Only one was .125, the others less.
I'm wondering if my new Sealed Power lifters are too long?
Or maybe I got some oil in my lifters (I've only hand-cranked with a wrench on the pulley nut), and maybe I wasn't able to push the lifters down all the way. They seemed to push down easily and bottom out though.

 

The theory behind the collapsed lifter test is to make certain that the lifters are operating at a reasonable place within their range. If they are too high (pushrods are too short) they will be near the "noisy" end, where a little wear or thermal changes will make for rocker clatter. (Hot rodders with anti-pump-up lifters run at this end on purpose to limit lifter pump-up at high rpm.) At the other end of the range wear on other parts (valves), will cause the lifter to hold the valve from completely closing - a much worse situation as the valve will fail very soon if it cannot seat properly.

Back to your situation - you probably could run the long pushrods successfully, but if you can exchange them for the short set, this would be a very good idea as it should put you right on spec. So far, no one else is addressing this, but I am not so certain what caused your pushrods to bend. I doubt that they would bend even if you stuck with the long pushrods. I would proceed cautiously. Put in the short rods, double-check the collapsed lifter test. (As long as you are not turning the engine over fast enough to build oil pressure, you should not have pushed oil into your lifters.) Finally, before running the engine, I would do another compression test. Crank the engine with the plugs out to fill the lifters. I also recommend you do some searching on FTE for "bent pushrods".

If anyone has bent pushrod experience, please share your knowledge with us.

 

Thanks for hangin' in there with me Archie.
It seemed a little odd that even the old pushrods were right at the minimum clearance or even less.
I won't have a problem exchanging for the shorter pushrods. The short ones will give .060 extra clearance, which should total .150 - right in the middle of the range.

 

I ended up going with all short pushrods. Very interesting that standard length pushrods reduced the "collapsed lifter" clearance to below specs. Only thing I can think of is the new lifters are longer then the stock ones, or the valves are really worn. I couldn't really compare lifters because the stock ones were worn (bottoms were slightly concave).
Anyway the evil noise is gone and she seems to be running normal. I checked compression and I do have one low cylinder.
1-180, 2-170, 3-150, 4-100, 5-170, 6-175.
Probably time to start saving my pennies for a re-build soon.
Would be benneficial if the title of this thread could be changed to "lifter removal and bent pushrod help"
Thanks for your advice acheda and Navymidn08.