350 ate a pushrod

bought an old chevy pickup w/ a transplanted 350 from an '89 camaro. tooling around the highway i heard a loud clackety-clack from somewhere under the hood. i was just getting ready to pull over when it went away. oil pressure was good so i went along. truck seemed sludggsh but maybe my imagination. today i pulled the valve covers as they were leaking bad. number 4 cylinders roller rockers were loose and then i noticed the push rod was missing for the intake. jeez! i'm an old pontiac guy but it seems the 350 chevy isn't far removed from the poncho. so where's the pushrod? i'm thinking somewhere under the valley cover. do i need to pull the intake a
nd get that sucker outta there? i suspect so. what mischief could it make if i didn't? normally i wouldn't hesitate but i'm under extreme time pressure at the moment and need the truck too. while i'm whining i got one more. any specific gasket better than the others for sealing? i bought a set of the blue felpro but that's what was on it when i pulled the covers. the 4 bolt middle of the valve cover design is new to me so any help i can get stopping the oil leaks is apprecciated. thanx much and have a good day. rick

get a magnet and fish around you might get lucky,hopefully the polley locks were loose. as for gaskets those are great and i use nothing on them.

You will need to Pull the Distributor anyways to remove your intake manifold . So that Magnet Idea is a good one . Use a Flexable Magnet Go through The Distributor hole on your Intake . I am Real Sure you will get that Push Rod with out having to Pull your intake .

As Tango said go thru the distributor hole to get it with a magnet. Reason this happened?.....stud pulled out of head for rocker,stripped rocker arm nut,broken valve spring....I would install new pushrod,adust valve,and try and run it with the v/c off and see if you see anything unusual. As for gaskets,IMHO Felpro are some of the best aftermarket gaskets.

thanx boys. hopefully i can pull it outta there.

while i've got the distributor out [hei coil in cap] are there any relatively cheap upgrades i can do on it? no experience w/ this distributor, seems to be working ok. thanks again, rick

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Originally Posted by rgrigutis

thanx boys. hopefully i can pull it outta there.

while i've got the distributor out [hei coil in cap] are there any relatively cheap upgrades i can do on it? no experience w/ this distributor, seems to be working ok. thanks again, rick

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Curve kit,external coil....thats about it

Just a thought that I haven't seen anybody address yet- WHERE OH WHERE IS THE LIFTER AT? Don't mean to shout , just wanted to get your attention:CRY: .but really, is the lifter still down in it's bore or is it tossed up into the lifter valley? You can sometimes take a flashlight and peek through the pushrod hole in the head and see if it is in place or not. Looks to me like the safe bet would be to go ahead and pull intake and get a clear picture of what you got under there. Be good for peace of mind:confused:

Yes it is that engine has a Roller Cam .

well i reckon if i take a pushrod and fit it up under the rocker i'll know if the lifter is in place or not in short order. the lock down nut on the poly lock was loose. the kid i bought it from had just adjusted everything a couple of weeks ago. it's conceivable or probable he missed locking it down. makes me wonder what else is not locked down. sunday i'll try and fish for the pushrod and readjust everything. if the fishing is off then i gurss the manifold will have to be too. this winter i'm gonna pull the whole works out and redo everything. this motor was originally a tpi and they used that harness leaving wires and sensors hanging out all over the place. why waste youth on the young? george bernard shaw

well i fished my new 2 piece pushrod out thru the casting hole in the head. bent and cracked in 2. these are supposedly hardened and i would've thought that they'd just snap before bending but i don't know the hardness specs.

well i bought some new pushrods and installed them today. on adjusting the vale that had the broken pushrod the preload was noticeably lighter than all the other valves. is this a bad lifter or no oil in it? thanx, rick

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Originally Posted by rgrigutis

well i bought some new pushrods and installed them today. on adjusting the vale that had the broken pushrod the preload was noticeably lighter than all the other valves. is this a bad lifter or no oil in it? thanx, rick

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sounds like a bad lifter