Ok guys, as some of you may know my old engine blew up due to a lack of piston to valve clearance. I now have a new fully forged internals 383 short block and AFR 195 heads sitting in my shed waiting to be built. I don't want to have the same issue with piston to valve clearance, so I am checking everything. My engine is an old school block designed for a regular flat tappet camshaft and lifters. The machine shop installed a COMP cams hydraulic retro fit roller camshaft. I also bought the COMP cams hydraulic retrofit roller lifters that are designed to fit in the smaller flat tappet lifter bores. My question is about pushrod length. Will this setup use the factory length roller pushrods from the 88+ roller TPI engines? I am thinking that I might just hae to get an adjustable pushrod length checker and play around with different lenghts. Any suggestions on where I should start? Thanks for any info!!!

 

Not all hyd roller lifters are the same height or the same height as stock ones (although there's less variation than there is among solid rollers); plus, you've got an aftermarket cam and aftermarket heads; then, you don't say what length of valves you're using in the heads; and on top of all that, you haven't said anything about any machine work, such as decking the block or the heads. So since ALL of those things affect what the "ideal" push rod length would be, it's IMPOSSIBLE to predict what length push rods you'll need.

Get an adjustable push rod, and just get the right length. Don't worry about whether it turns out to be the same as "stock" length or not. The motor will not be concerned at all if the length you end up with is different from "stock". That's not what it cares about.

 

Well I didn't want to go into all the engine details because there is alot of stuff to calculate and without acutally measuring it there is no definite way to say. I am almost positive that the pushords that I will need will be a custome length, and I have no issues with that. The main reason why I posted was basically to get a feel from anyone that has maybe used these components and could give me a starting point.

 

In all of my 383's, I run a small base circle cam. You WILL want to do the same. Also, get a push rod length checker. They are cheap and easy to use.

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