+1. Moroso check spring from Summit. Some folks have had luck at the hardware store finding a suitable spring.

 

I'm not spending $100 to measure and find out they're too short, then either selling them and taking a loss or spending another $200 on pushrods.

 

Ok, well, it's less than a third of that for a checker and it you want to potentially destroy your engine or parts of it because you don't want to measure, then that's your call.

 

I'm just not going to go with them on the basis of what people've said and find ones that will retain the stock pushrod length.

 

I was always taught That to measure CORRECT pushrod length you have to use a check spring and a solid lifter. I wouldn't advise using a operational lifter and spring if your wanting a absolutely correct measurement

 

The check springs won't collapse the lifter(hydraulic). With solid lifters, you don't need the check spring.You can use the installed cam springs.

 

Not trying to argue, but if you use a solid lifter and the inservice spring you could possibly cause flex in the length checker skewing your measurement. with the check spring you would know the exact point of zero lash when movement ocurred granted you've set up a dial indcator.. I'm sure one way is as good as another its just how techncial you wanna get. I try to finite adjust everything I can..

 

I disagree. I have tried the checking springs and found they still collapsed the lifter. I even went to the hardware store and got a very soft general spring, same thing happened. If the lifter has oil in it, test springs can work with border line acceptable results. If the lifter is not pumped up, forget about the test spring IMHO.

Simply put, the best way is to pull the intake and convert a lifter over to solid and check the PR lengths. I have also found that the Proform pushrod length tool matches what I find with the adjustable pushrod.

 

My check springs were so weak, they barely pushed up high enough to keep the valve keepers in place. I had no problems, with my LS7 lifters, when checking pr length using a check spring. I did watch to see if they collapsed but they did not.

 

What push rod tool are you using? I had a little movement (comp cams pro mag)but it couldn't have been more than .005, if that much. But, if you do want "perfect", nothing wrong with that , either.