When I pulled the motor apart I noticed some worn areas on my heads where the pushrods go through. Its the very first and last pushrods on heads head...the 4 corners.

Is this machined like this from the factory or is something wrong here?

I want to eliminate and possible noises on startup so this goes as smooth as possible. If this is a problem can I just grind to make the psuhrods not touch?

 

Is there a wear pattern on the pushrod or head? Best as I can tell from the blurry picture, that's machined.

 

if it's wear going up and down then it'd be from the pushrod, those marks look concentric, ie, from a cutter.
zoom out though, I have no idea what that's of really.
I don't think it's a problem though.

definately don't grind the pushrods.

 

I was thinking it was machined too. There were some wear marks on some of the pushrods but I can't remember if it was on the same valves.

On both heads where the pushrods may be hitting one end is machined (or worn) as you see in the pic; kind of from the top to the bottom. The other end of the head the machined place is about half as long. This is the exact same for both heads.

 

It is quite possible to have pushrods rubbing on the head, especially if you have other than stock rockers or heavy duty rods. You can take a die grinder and an abrasive wheel and just take a little off the head. You might want to do this just to make sure.

However, it is very important to try to determine how thick the material is in this area (water jacket). You don't want to take off too much and it really shouldn't take a lot to fix this. I would NOT use a carbide, just use a rough abrasive wheel (the sandpaper looking ones). I might start with a stone wheel of the pushrods are worn pretty bad... but don't go nuts on it...

This is why I always keep the pushrods in order when I take an engine apart. Inspecting the pushrods is really the way to verify this type of problem.

 

Pushrods are still in perfect order I just havn't checked them. I may clearance them a little eevn though both heads are perfectly matching (machined?).

I'm running Comp ProMags and Trickflow 5/16" pushrods 7.400" long...

 

what heads are they? i built a 383 a while back and i used dart pro 1 aluminum heads, i had to grind the area the pushrods go thru to get enough clearance for them. i probvably shoulda went with offset rockers and lifters

 

They are Trickflow 23 Degree heads. I did al little grinding even though I don't think they were hitting. Should defenitly be good now.