Picked up a 56 F100 last year but haven't been able to work on the old girl as much as I would like to. Had to replace the wiring harness before I even thought about trying to start her up. Once that was done she fired right up and ran well considering she hadn't run for a number of years. Didn't get much opportunity to work on her this winter but when I did get a chance to fire her up again  I noticed a miss but didn't give it too much thought.
Warmed her up today and popped the valve covers off to set the valve lash and discovered the pushrod for #2 exhaust valve missing. This is my first Y block, so digging into the manual but thought I wold put it out here also.
Is it possible for the pushrod to drop into the valley between the heads or even into the oil pan ? Broken pushrod ?
What would be the best course of action- pull the intake and valley cover or the oil pan ? Ran a magnet down the lifter hole but didn't snag anything.
Researching this further as I post this but thought everyone else's' greater knowledge could give me some suggestions as to my next actions'
Thanks guys
Russ