Hello all,
I have a 1965 F350 with a 352. One of the pushrods on the #1 cylinder broke and the truck started smoking something terrible. I pulled the valve covers, rocker arms, and intake tonight. I have two questions. First, there was alot of antifreeze in the hole of the valve where the pushrod broke. I mopped it all up, but could alot of water gotten down in the cylinder by any chance? Do I need to pull the head, and if I do, what problems should I look for?
Second, how exactly do you get the lifters out? On another thread someone said that the lifter for the busted pushrod probably collapsed. I though you could just pull em out with a magnet, but these only come up like 1/4 of an inch and stay.
I'm sure I'll come up with more questions, but this is it for now.
Thanks for all the help in advance, Garrett

 

You need to determine what caused the pushrod to break. A collapsed lifter could but not always. There is a tool available to pull the lifter that catches in the plunger retaining ring groove. Or rotate the crank until the lifter is at max lift and it might facilitate removal. But you can check the lifter without removing it from the bore. Just take another pushrod and with a rag over the top end of the pushrod push down on the plunger. You should not be able depress the plunger more than about an 1/8th of an inch. If the thing compresses more, like a 1/4" then the lifter is bad.

 

Thank you for the reply. What else, other than a collapsed lifter, could make a pushrod break? Could there possibly be something out of ajustment? Thanks for the help
Garrett

 

Stuck valve or a slipped (read very loose) timing chain, then again I had one fail once because it was flawed, but that's pretty rare.

 

Blown head gasket. Fills cylinder with coolant. Valve tries to open - somethings gotta give. Pushrod's the cheapest/weakest link. Check the other one on the same cylinder - if it's bent you have a gasket problem. (done this before...)

 

When you say check the other one on the same cylinder, I assume you mean the pushrod. I didnt roll any of them across a sheet of glass or something like that to be absolutly sure that they arent bent, I still need to do that. I think I'm just gonna pull the motor. I have alot of it apart already and that way I could see for certian whats going on.
A quick question on FE's: My 352 only has one motor mount, on the front crossmember right at the front of the motor. the mount is attached to a plate, which is attached to the timing chain cover. Is it even possible to get to the timing chain without pulling the motor? And do all FE's only have the one front mount? Thank you
Garrett

 

Sounds like your describing a 332 or similar FT motor with that style mount. The 352 on the front of the motor is a generic casting on all the FE's according to my reading here..