So i get this new engine from Golen Engines,Finally get it installed. Mechanic comes back to me and says, hey i discovered why it's making all that noise. There is a Bent Pushrod and One broken Pushrod. the rods are Comp Cams High Energy per the spec of the engine. this is Golens 350/360hp engine. Are these rods known to be defective? or did some one over rev the engine when they were breaking it in. I have nothing but good thingds to say about Golen Engines,Chad is great at customer service and he has a good reputation for building engines, even sent out replacement Push rods over night.

So my question to the board is, How did these rods get bent and broken?

Secondly, mechanic cant find a piece of the rod that is about 1.75 inches long
where would this piece go? wouldnt it follow the flow of oil and end up in the oil pan? Mechaninc thinks he has to take the engine apart and find it?
I have been waiting 4 months for this whole thing. Mechanic has people problems, not enough people there? and too many cars, not too uncommon i hear amongst mechanics.

Wanna see the car and hear it for your self? click this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7LdV5tKs4
there is actually a whole series on the engine, but this is the one where the engine starts for the first time.

Please let me know what you think.

 

Pull the intake. JMHO----check the geometry to see that the rods are the right length---make certain they are adjusted correctly---find another mechanic.

 

Bent pushrods can usually be associated with piston-valve contact.
RG

 

I find it hard to believe that Golen would send you an engine in that sort of shape. Maybe when they took the car for a test drive, they missed a shift and bounced off the rev limiter. Do you have a manual tranny? I would take it to another mechanic. A four month wait and an understaffed shop would make me worry right away.

 

I would say that the piece of the push rod is laying in the lift valley. If it made it into one of the holes, then it's in the pan. Use a strong magnet on the pan and try to move everything towards the drain plug hole. You'll hear/see something if it made it to the pan. Definitely do a compression/leak down test on the cylinders with the bent and broken push rods. That will tell you if any of the valves are bent (from contact, as Ricardo mentioned). Contact can occur from over revving (valve float). HTH

 

I'm sure it didn't happen at golen, and I don't think Chad breaks in the engines before he sends them out. Did your mechanic get in there and adjust or readjust valves? Maybe he didn't tighten a few and the rocker arms came off the pushrods. I would lean towards something the mechanic did in this case vs. the engine coming to you in that kind of shape.

Ken R.

 

No i didn teven consider Golen as the source of the problem. I do know that the Engine went from Crate to shop floor, they put pieces on, then into the Car. As for another mechanic, i am so far long with this guy, i just let it slide, he's a friend of a friend, thats why i didnt pull the car earlier. Believe me if i knew then what i knew now, i would have had them just put the engine in and then give it back to me, i could have worked on it myself. I am leaning towards the piece of push rod being in the oil pan and will try the magnet trick.

i just want my freaking car back!

thanks for all your help!

 

If it was a shortblock Golen has nothing to do with it since you are using your own heads which means the shop is responsible for checking everything during assembly unless of course the block was decked to the point of the pistons coming out of the bore...
From what I've read so far it is in your best interest to take the manifold off and check your lifters to see if any of them are siezed in the bore and check the lifters themselves to see if there are any abnormalties with the roller bearings. If you find any then you must pull the cam to see if the lobes are ok. If you find nothing wrong with the lifters then you must pull your heads and see if a valve came into contact with a piston. If that's the case you may have a bent valves and gouged pistons meaning they must be replaced. It'd probably be a good idea to start with a leakdown first.
Breaking a pushrod is a pretty major tell tale sign that something is very wrong.