Are those lift numbers with 1.5 rockers or 1.6?
If those numbers advertised with 1.5 rockers then your real lift is .603 .593 with 1.6
What springs do you have? Your problem might be coil-bind.
Check over your cam specs to see if it is right installed height on the springs and the right spring for the lift.
I hope you figure this out.
BTW spend a little more and get the 1 piece push rods.
They are cheap insurance.

 

I'm driving the car around now. I took the valve covers off again after it was idling for a few minutes yesterday and found cylinder #2 intake side rocker real lose, but the pushrod hadn't been bent yet and the exhaust side was fine. I went back and tightened the **** out of the remaining poly locks and I've put another 50 miles on it with no problems.

These springs have been used on this cam with other engines w/o problems, although I did e-mail the guy I got the cam from about pushrod recomendations. I'm taking the advice and getting chrome moly ones.
Yeah I checked all this, maybe the rocker was just walking on the valve and the SA tab was riding on the valve when it opened and caused the retainer to bottom out. I am gonna file off the SA tabs and get guide plates though, I should have looked into this before ordering parts.
I found zero lash by screwing the poly lock down until there was no pushrod movement, then 1/4 turn.
I didn't do the compression test correctly, I still had the other spark plugs in as well. I was just doing the test to check for a bent valve. The compression looked low to me also, but it was about 140 stock and now every cylinder is between 170-175psi, so at least it's consistant
The lift numbers were with 1.6 rockers, I should have specified, I'll edit the post to show this.

Thanks a lot for the responses, I got a lot of useful info out of this thread.

 

If it were me, I would just stop changing parts and start to do some checking. To bend pushrods like that you have to have some serious clearance issues.

The first thing I would do is to remove the lifters on the cylinders where you had the problems, disassemble them and put some small brass washers in place of the hydraulics to make up a pair of solid lifters. Then I would reassemble the valve train on that cylinder to zero lash, turn the engine over by hand and check for coil bind (as has been mentioned by others several times). As I recall, you should have at least 0.060" min. clearance at full lift. While you're at it check to see if you have enough clearance between the retainers and the valve seals.

Then, using the same solid lifters, check your valve train geometry to determine if your pushrods are the correct length.

The results of these checks will provide you with information on how to proceed from there.

 

Right here is your problem....

"7808-16 7.2" pushrods"

SAY NO TO CHEAP HARDENED PUSHRODS!!!!!!

Do a search for the hardened pushrods thread and read what I had to say about that.

Bret

 

I'll look up some of your posts, I've been scolded for using those pushrods by a few other people as well

I swear, with as much research as I did on some of my parts, I'm embarrased to be in this situation. I ordered some Crane 10621 chrome moly pushrods today along with new studs and guide plates.

 

Let's hope you don't need pushrods that are a different length from stock.

 

I found zero lash by screwing the poly lock down until there was no pushrod movement, then 1/4 turn.
If I read this right, this might be your problem. Zero lash is when the push rod makes contact with the lifter and there is no play between rocker and lifter via the push rod. If your not paying attention you could be colapsing the lifter and then putting an additional 1/4 turn is way too much. Loosen the rockers and then tighten them down while lifting the rocker off the valve until you can't lift the rocker. Then your at zero lash . Now it's your 1/4 turn or 1/2 turn to preload the lifter.

 

Yep, listen to Shoebox and pizzi-man here.... I see a lot of both of those things.

Bret

 

Yeah really, I got a friend thats gonna help me check the pushrod length. I already had a length checker, I just made the assumption that stock was good enough since I had stock thickness valve covers, regular base circle cam and the block and heads haven't been milled. I went ahead and ordered the pushrods so I'd have them in at the same time as the studs and guideplates, if I need shorter ones then I'd just send'em back. They're 7.178 long, which is slightly shorter than stock, so hopefully they'll be the right length or damn close.

Your right, I was tightening the polylock until it bottomed out and goin from there. That's probably why the 1/2 turn from zero lash made the car run like crap. My problems started after I went 1/4 turn from zero lash and I went back and went another 1/8th turn from the previous adjustment and I'm up to 75 miles with no other valve train issues. I'm gonna get the car to a friends shop to check out my knocking noise this afternoon, then I'm gonna park it until I can get my guideplates and new pushrods in. I'll keep this in mind, thanks for the tip.

 

"Your right, I was tightening the polylock until it bottomed out and goin from there. That's probably why the 1/2 turn from zero lash made the car run like crap. My problems started after I went 1/4 turn from zero lash and I went back and went another 1/8th turn from the previous adjustment and I'm up to 75 miles with no other valve train issues. I'm gonna get the car to a friends shop to check out my knocking noise this afternoon, then I'm gonna park it until I can get my guideplates and new pushrods in. I'll keep this in mind, thanks for the tip."
what you did was collapsed the lifter and by going another half turn you held the valve open.
That's most likely why the bent pushrods. valve can't close so piston hits valve and from there it's the weakest link that bends / breaks .

 

Maybe even bent valves!!!!!

Good read on pushrods....

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=501667

 

You need good pushrods, but that is not what is causing the problem.

What are the head specs? Seat Pressure? Open pressure? Dist. to coil bind after max lift? Retainer to seal clearance? What springs?

Make sure you are truly on the base circle of the cam when setting lash. The easiest way is the "Exhaust Opening-Intake Closing" method - as the exhaust valve starts to open, adjust the intake rocker on that cylinder, then as the intake starts to close, adjust the exhaust rocker on that cylinder. No confusion on overlap or true tdc with this method.

Getting to "zero" takes some practice - you spin the pushrod in your fingers and adjust the rocker until you feel the resistance point, do this several times to get the feel of it. Then go 1/2-2/3 turn past zero.

 

I don't have any specs on the springs unfortuntely. The heads are stock and the shop I bought the springs from uses these springs with all their camshafts and they have cars with much bigger cams running these springs, so I didn't ask any questions. I'll check the springs tonite when I put in the studs and guide plates though.

I'll use the method that you described, it seems a lot easier than the method I was using. I was rotating it so the arrow was at 12 o'clock and doing 1/2 of the valves and rotating it 360 and doing the rest. That's kind of a pain in the ***.

 

Chris, the shop you mention; was that Jeff Creech's Carolina Auto Masters in Durham? If so, as a customer Jeff should be willing to help you.

 

The shop I meantioned wasn't CAM, but Jeff asked me to drive it by his shop as well so one of his guys could listen to it. He's been very helpful over the past few months while I've been puttin my car together.

Unfortunately no one can seem to pinpoint this knocking noise under my car though