Doing the RR install.
I bought these Melling MPR-373 pushrods at Autozone.
When you take a file and try to scuff it right next to the ball, it shows some etching.

When you take a file and scuff it away from the ball where the guide plates rub, it shows no etching at all.
I laid the pressure on the file so I think it is safe to say these are the hardened kind. The file would not begin to make a cut.

Do you guys agree?

Im going to test this with the stockers too.

 

please don't do that..

putting any type of crack, scratch, or mark on them can be a spot to propogate a fracture like nobodys buisness.

Also theres no telling what type of material hardening the factory did to these pushrods... so who knows you might have just taken some chunks out of a case hardened pushrod.

 

9 times out of ten if the pushrod has a ball at the top. it's harndend. i heard that GM rods are pretty strong and people use them all the time. if it's not hardend it looks like a pretzel stick..

 

I took the edge of a file to the stock rods and it will definitely cut into them. No doubt about it. Again the file doesnt even leave a blemish on these Mellings period. There is no damage as a result of the test.

Im glad I did not reuse the stockers, these 95 pushrods are not hardened at all on the barrel. I can see these thing making problems.

The mellings are rock hard nect to the stockers.

I guess the debate on 95 pushrods will go on and on.