bent push rods

[4604me]

I'm out at the lake last weekend and the boat runs great . so I make one last pass at WOT and get a tic, tic, tic, the boat still runs good, but the tic comes and goes. I get home and pull the valve coveres and find some bent push rods, 11 of them. I checked them by spinning them in the hole. slightly bent, not perfectly strait. the motor's a 1978 460 stock, everything else looks good in there. why? is this normal wear and tear for a old Ford. and will it cause my tic. I'm going to replace all the push rods what else should I be looking for. I'm hoping it will last through summer, before I rebuild this winter. any advise, Thanks Steve.

[Mighty Thor]

Well, not to say that your problem is the same as mine, but when I ended up with 6 bent push rods I did get the tick tick tick sound. replace the push rods and two lifters and ran it for about a month and a half when I hung a valve open and destroyed the engine. Should have redone the heads when I did the pushrods but I wanted to test some other stuff first and you know one thing leads to another and then one day BANG and no more cylinder, piston, rod or cam. Might want to think about having the heads done if your motor is "old" like you say.

[rerfert]

If you are going to just replace push rods....Do a leak down test and compresion test after you get it back together.
I had the coming and going tick in a 455 olds and it turned out to be a bent exhaust valve from the previous owner.
I thought what the heck would come and go like clock work??
Found a bent exhaust valve on #5 in the motor and as the valve rotated it would pick up some compresion in the cyl then drop it to 0

[Moneypitt]

Did you get it hot? Valve guides can seize the valves if the heads get too hot. Cool down and they seem ok for a while. If you had solids you would have a flat cam from the extra load of the tight guides. A little history would help, old motor, new motor, heads, cam etc.......It takes quite a bit to bend pushrods, especially with hyd lifters, as they usually deflate first. ....MP

[4604me]

bought the boat last summer, the previous owner owned it for 15 years ,said he had never been in the motor.so as far as I know i'ts stock except for the preformer intake. I'm sure the lifters ar hydraulic, ther's no water in the oil, but its possable I cavitated the pump. the lake was pertty rough and I possabiley came out of the water and over reved it. It still ran good when I put it on the trailer, except for that tic...

[Moneypitt]

bought the boat last summer, the previous owner owned it for 15 years ,said he had never been in the motor.so as far as I know i'ts stock except for the preformer intake. I'm sure the lifters ar hydraulic, ther's no water in the oil, but its possable I cavitated the pump. the lake was pertty rough and I possabiley came out of the water and over reved it. It still ran good when I put it on the trailer, except for that tic...
So it ran good even with the bent pushrods? So they could've been bent for years. You might want to inspect the rockers, and the pivots/shafts. Over reving COULD cause piston to valve interference, and bent pushrods are a sign that something solid ran into something hard, and the pushrods were the weakest link in the chain.........Is it still ticking?...........MP

[spectras only]

I usually toss the OEM 5/16 pushrods in the waste bin. Get the magnum compcam pushrods and Rhoads anti pumpup lifters that you set with zero clearence .The cam sprocket is most likely aluminum with the nylon gears and when they worn , the chain can slip a few teeth and cause valve/piston interference . Believe it or not it happened even on the 60's Lincolns with the 430 engine ;) with alu/nylon cam gears.

[Moneypitt]

I usually toss the OEM 5/16 pushrods in the waste bin. Get the magnum compcam pushrods and Rhoads anti pumpup lifters that you set with zero clearence .The cam sprocket is most likely aluminum with the nylon gears and when they worn , the chain can slip a few teeth and cause valve/piston interference . Believe it or not it happened even on the 60's Lincolns with the 430 engine ;) with alu/nylon cam gears.
In this case it is a good thing he didn't have godzilla pushrods. That could've resulted in some heavy duty damage inside the motor........MP

[spectras only]

In this case it is a good thing he didn't have godzilla pushrods. That could've resulted in some heavy duty damage inside the motor........MP
You're probably right. Since removing the ford timing cover is less of a headache than the chevy , I would make sure to replace the quiet [ like we need it in a jetboat] alu/plastic cam sprocket with a Cloyes true roller set.

[4604me]

I haven't had a chance to replace the push rods yet, I do'nt think the timing chain skiped a tooth, becouse it ran fine even with the tic noise, the noise comes and goes? so I don't know. I was going to go with crome molly push rods but I to am thinking weekest link, I think I'll stick with stock steel rods for now.

[spectras only]

You should still invest in anti pumpup lifters. They act as a solid lifter and require zero clearence setting , so the only time you'll bend pushrods if jump a few teeth .The 460 will still run with a few teeth off , just with late cam timing and the power band higher :) .Take the timing cover off , just to make sure it's ok !