The pushrod cup is wearing for some reason.  They're all rotating and I measured the lobe lift at .288 which is very close to the .295 that is stated on the cam card.  Figure in a little sine error and it's probably right on.  Does this indicate that the Y also has excellent geometry?  I've watched Don assemble several chrysler small blocks.  The geometry is so horrible that the actual lift that can be achieved tends to be around 95% of advertised.  It doesn't sound like much but thats about .030" on a .500" lift cam.  Of course, these measurements are at the valve.

I'm exhausted and haven't yet checked out the adjuster screw for burrs that may be doing this.  I'll just say that I'm a happy camper.  It'll be a cheap and easy fix.  To bad this kept the truck from making an appearance.

Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie:

Check the rocker arm, there is a small hole just behind the adjuster screw that dribbles oil on the pushrod.  Someone just found some rockers with those holes plugged with setscrews.  That's odd, but his set weren't all plugged, so there may be a few more of those floating around.  They can also be plugged with sludge that doesn't get cleaned out when the parts are tanked.

Good to meet you last weekend, sorry you had to take the truck back home.  Really made your trip a lot longer, you looked tired.

John

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I'll certainly take a look at the oil holes.  I have the Dove roller rockers.  Maybe there's a chunk of aluminum in there.  I've seen that on other parts before.

I am glad to have met you and everyone else.  It's good to know who I am talking to.  You just can't find out who someone is on a forum.  I was tired.  Still am.  I was expecting to arrive around 7:00pm Friday rather than 5:00am on Saturday.

Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie: Did you happen by chance to have bought that pushrod in recent times?  There was an article in Y-Blk Mag recently (issue #79 or #80 I think?) by J. Mummert, that some inferior pushrods (read made overseas!) have surfaced recently. Apparently the radius is wrong at the cup where it fits against the rocker arm.     

Paul

Charlie,

          From the picture, the thing looks just plain soft. Like it was never heat treated. Excessive clearance would have aggravated the situation. Dove hasreportedly had quality issues in the past, so do as John said and check for oiling passages. Better this than a cam lobe or lifter though!

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Charlie.  Add this to the list of things to look at.  There’s a slim chance that the oil groove in one or more of the Dove rockers is not aligning with the lower oil hole in the shaft.  This becomes more pronouced as the rockers are shimmed to better center or locate the rockers either on the valve tip or the pushrod holes.  I typically remedy the oil hole misalignment by just grinding an angled slot about a ¼” long across each shaft oil hole to insure that oil gets to the rocker as designed.

 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

The pushrods were used on the old engine as well. They were on there for 10k miles. I had stock high ratio rockers on the new build for about 30 miles They weren't staying adjusted - the screws were backing out. The Dove rockers were installed at that time. I'll check the alignment of the oil holes as well.


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie, teds right on the money with the oil hole alignment. i,ve been running dove aluminum rockers for years, and found several dont get oil through them and hence dry pushrod cups, his mod fixes this. Aussiebill..

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Thanks Ted.  I have modified the rocker shaft.  All of the oiling holes in the rocker arms are obstruction free.  Have you had any of these rocker arms with bad screws?  The screw that corresponds with the bad pushrod is not breaking in like the others.  All of the other pushrods look ok.

The bad one:

The camera makes it look shinier than it is.  It hardly looks like it's been installed.  I didn't spot any wear pattern anywhere along the ball.

The rest have a similar polished pattern such as:

I'm also curious as to what formed the step in the pushrod in the first picture I posted.  I can't find anything to explain that.

Lawrenceville, GA

Wild guess as to why it is not shiny. Is the lifter rotating?