Sorry to hear about your grief with the  push rods!  I have used the Elgin Pushrods before with out any problem.  I guess all these guys make a bad product at times.  My buddy has a 292 in a pickup with a set of Elgin Pushrods with 30,000miles on them!

Gonna take one for the Team, installed all 16 of the Elgin pushrods today along with the new rocker arm assemblies. We'll see if they hold up. Is there a warranty on these things? If they break I want my money back.

Guess I better throw a couple OEM in the glove box just in case. Everything looks good. Replaced and shimmed 16 valve springs, cold lash &c, all that's left is reinstall plugs and fire it up and let it run in for a while. Did put a spot of Moly on all the rocker tips, rod cups and ends for good measure.

There was a lot of talk about this problem some time back. As I remember it was discussed that the manufacturer had use cups for a Mopar application that are slightly smaller that the Y-Block. This would cause the cups to break out a section of the wall. Charlie did a lot of investigation into this and did find that testing the depth of the ball into the cup was eye opening. Seems like a good step to add to the process when changing push rods or rocker arms.

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire

Looked at the old OE rods a little more carefully, not scientific tho chucked them in a drill and ran them on a rocker placed in a vise eyeballing them while spinning. Quit after checking about half of them - all bent or wobbly to some degree. Runout limit is only .005" or somesuch.

Two of them showed that at one time (not now) incorrect intake bolts had been installed. Great work by my engine "rebuilder". &@%#!! crooks.

WOW! your engine builder doesn't seem to know much about Yblocks

This maybe the problem, further investigation will be needed when I can get a break. I'm using the shorter rod with my G heads and 1.54 rockers. Maybe the longer ones did have an issue?

Based on a recent "Random Thoughts" blurb by John Mummert in Y-Block Magazine, (issue #137, 2016) what may be happening here is a compatibilty problem, not necessarily bad Elgin or other stock spec pushrods. Original or stock replacement pushrods & some aftemarket adjusting screws both appear to have 3/8" adjusters. This is not actually the case.  The ball & cup needs about .010 - .015" oiling clearance. Stock Ford adjuster balls are about .360" & the cup is about .375".  Some aftermarket pushrods have a .390"  cup & the adjuster ball end is .375".. If the aftermarket ball adjusters are used with original spec pushrods, there is no clearance for proper oiling, soon resulting in failure!  Plus he says there are poor quality aftermarket adjuster screws out there also..   ..( Hopefully I've explained the problem correctly)  Also note that he explains some other important miscues that can happen related to our favorite engine & related parts. This issue is worth ordering from the editor Bruce Young, just for this article alone..     


Paul

Not much of an engine builder full stop! Anyone that doesn't check to see if a bolt is bottoming or interfering with something shouldn't be building engines.

I am aware of that possible problem. I use OEM adjusters that are .360 and with the OEM pushrods they worked fine on the previous engine. I reused the same rockers and pushrods on my new engine and it ran fine for the first few hundred miles. I only bought the new pushrods because I now have 2 Yblock motors and only had one set of pushrods and I liked the idea of tubular vs solid. Good news is I reinstalled the OEM pushrods and between a long drive on Sat, a few short ones on Mon and Tues it's run perfectly for 400 miles. Other good news is I found another set of OEM and another set of unidentified in an unmarked box that I totally forgot I had. I'm at that age I shouldn't rely on memory :-)

Yep, it was quite a few years ago, paid a lot of money (for me) at the time. I've had the pleasure of going through everything and spending both the money and the time making it right.