Okay I blew a head gasket which called for pulling off the head, things I found out: cylinders 4 5 and 6 all have oil in them. All my exhaust valves are burnt. My head gasket was in fact the reason my oil turned a light brown and foamed out my dipstick tube. I also found out I have several bent push rods... Now thats not that crazy but what I think is a little odd is that my valves are in good shape with no obvious signs of damage at all, none of the pistons look like they've been hit, everything looks pretty normal... but somehow I've got several bent push rods, 2 of which are pretty radically bent. Number 3 cylinder had a bent exhaust valve push rod which caused a very hot cylinder which caused some pinging and there are some craters on the piston and the head gasket was very surely being eaten away and even the spark plug had started to fail.

Any ideas how my push rods got bent without bending valves or destroying pistons?

 

what does the cam lobes look like?

 

How are the valve guides ?

 

Hadn't tore into it far enough to get a look at the cam. I also haven't gone deep enough to check the valve guides, I'm doing this in an apartment complex parking lot where only "minor" repairs are allowed. In my book a head gasket on a 78 is totally a minor repair but I get the feeling the people in the office feel differently so this is all being done fairly clandestine. The head is in the trunk of my car because I need to go pressure wash it to get all that watery oil off so I can work on it and actually be able to grip my tools. I'm going to pull the valves to replace the valve seals since 3 cylinders had oil in them and I was going to check the guides when I did that. Boy what I wouldn't give to have so much as a shed to work in :/

 

The 351W in my boat after setting all winter bent push rods because the lifters stuck. Engine new with about 10 hours on it when stored for winter. Just a thought. Fixed the engine and test ran it on shop floor. Got it in boat and almost buttoned up when the ex gave me the boot. Has been sitting 5 years now so it is for sure they are stuck again. So I will be pulling the intake and rockers to free it up again. Hee Hee

 

over-revving and floating the valves out will bend pushrods. My brother used to run his 351 as hard as it'd go through high school.....remember quite a few saturdays he'd be out in the drive way putting in pushrods. Used to keep a few in the truck actually. He'd drive it 1oo plus to school everday right on the carpet!!