Hey guys, gonna be dropping in a 230/236 next weekend and ive searched the board to see what a good setup will be. I'm gonna be using comp 986-16 springs, new lifters, new cam but my worry is will the stock pushrods on my 94 work ok?

If I have to buy new ones would the regular comp hardened pushrods be ok or do I have to go all out with the chrome-molly ones, any feedback would be great, thanx...

 

You really don't need the expensive, one-piece, chrome moly pushrods for a hydraulic roller cam. You can eliminate a little bit of valvetrain mass but it isn't worth it for most people. There's also an advantage to the stock style pushrods in that they will fail before more critical parts... which is a good thing.

Of course if you are using guideplates you need hardened pushrods of some brand/type. The $37 CompCams pushrods are fine for this purpose.

 

So how about using those 37 dollar hardened pushrods on a stock rocker setup? Are you saying it will do more harm then good?

 

It can't be a bad idea to change pushrods on a 130,000 km motor.

 

I wouldn't be using the stock rockers with a cam swap, they are inaccurate, ineffecient, might not have the clearance for high lift, and you risk galling them with high spring loads and cam lift.

There is no reason to change pushrods based on engine milage. They are not something that wear out If you are going to use self-aligning rockers than the stock pushrods should do just fine. If you are using non-SA rockers I would pick up the cheap, hardened, pushrods to use with the guideplates that are required for non-SA rockers.

 

If you have the stock pushrods out to inspect, do the following:

Roll each one on a flat surface (glass, or mirror) to check straightness.
Check each end (especially the rocker end) they sometime wear out on the ends (if the pushrod gets plugged them no or little oil flows to lube all the parts), the ends should be smooth and round, not rough at all. If you have any bad pushrods then the associated rocker may also be bad for similar reasons, so check the contact surfaces of all rockers too.
I agree that if you are going to the trouble of a cam, lifter and springs change then a set of roller rockers is worth doing.
Finally with any cam/spring change you need to check for adaquate clearance in the valve train (check for minimum clearance in the spring to ensure that you do not get coil bind when the valve is at maximum lift).

 

Clearance should not be a problem when i'm using 1.5 rocker ratio, the 230/236 i'm using is the one with low lift numbers .510/.520 so i'm not worried about that part. I think that comp 986's are a stronger spring then the 987 when it comes down the low lift and not excedding the limit, it is after all a tripple coil spring.

Anyway thax for the info I will check all the rockers but i've decided to change the pushrods anyway, can't afford roller rockers