im changing to chromolly push rods to do rocker arm geometry

i noticed on the aircooled site they offer several different ones.

what ones do i want:
what diameter?
with or without taper?

thanks
-jim

stock cam or big lift cam.

twystd1

i went with manton chrome-moly's and i think they were 3/8

Pushrods

When you lose a tip from one of the imitation pushrods you'll see why these are all we use..

I have used thousands and never had a bad one, I have bent TWO of them in the past 8 years...

Jim - DID YOU LISTEN TO THE IV DIMENSION radio show? Oct 6 was valve train. That's all I can say...be an INFORMED buyer

So with these, you get the car hot, then adjust? How about the first time you are installing, how do you adjust the clearance?

zero lash, you want the push rod to move by some method and thats it.

nope. when dead cold.. you set it to ZERO lash....

steel doesnt expand as much as aluminum....
so when the motor is nice and hot, and the aluminum expanded... and the steel pushrods havent, you have a few thou of lash when hot....

just right...

yep- thats the best 1:22 minutes you can spend!

So, when you adjust your valves with these pushrods, you use zero clearance intake and exhaust? Excuse me, I'm a little slow.

YEP.

with mantons and a header, i did a valve adjust in 7-8 minutes

Great, guess I'll have to get a new feeler gauge. Mine doesn't have a zero.

That's pretty funny. mine does.
Actually zero lash is a bit of a misnomer. More accuratley for the "slow kids"

no perceptable slop when moving rocker are against valve and push rod. BUT you can still rotate the push rod with your finger tips.

OK that is zero lash but also how you achieve it.

Ok, so let's say you install these, and then you sell the car. The new owner, not knowing anything about them takes them to the local "vw" shop. They adjust the valves using the old method, with a feeler guage, when cold. Won't the engine run like crap for that person? Would they ever figure out that these aren't normal push rods?

or you could disclose the fact when selling

who cares what the NO does? lol


yep, their engine would clack all over the place and have like 9-10 tho clearances LOL

I'm guessing that at least it wouldn't damage the engine.

Perhaps someone could design a warning sticker that goes on the valve covers. WARNING! - ACHTUNG!

I have those stickers for my engines..

Many people still stuck in the 70s run their lash at stock settings even with these pushrods..

Its just loud and loses about .050 of the valve lift to lash and takes some valve duration away...

Not optimum..

What I would be more concerned about is the fact that you get .004-.008 lash (from Jake's page). That seems like a pretty big variable. Granted, I've never checked Al. ones when hot to see the difference.

The difference is the same with stock..

be more concerned when the engine runs over temp and the lash completely closes- when that happens valves burn, seats drop and even the heads of valve weaken and snap off...

Excess lash loses power and is loud, but it'll never compromise your engine. Not enough lash will open the wallet fast.

chromoly pushrods could be considered an insurance policy, when you over temp the lash opens up....