Ok not to come across as totally lost I do know where my push rods are normally but I was driving home and the engine developed a bad miss. I babied it home and started checking things out like plugs wires ect. The motor sounded a bit rough but not nosiey. My back plug on the drivers side seemed somewhat black and wet. I pulled the valve cover off to find both rocker arms on that bank off the push rods and one rocker arm was broken. I have a 5.7 stroked to 383 with 89 aluminum heads with guide plates.The rockers are what must be e-bay junk roller tipped stamped steel. The push rods are no where to be seen. Did they fall down in the pan or are they under the intake? I don't want to just start taking things apart.Anyone had this problem? My engine only has 2500 miles on it. I am going to change out all push rods and rockers.I will get them at jegs or summit this time. I have found most of the things I get on e-bay comes back to haunt me. Any advise is welcome.

 

You'll probably find pieces of them under the intake, but sometimes they fall through the oil drain holes into the pan.

 

I don't think they broke apart because there is no signs of anything under the valve cover other than the rocker and a big hunk of it broke out. I ran a magnet around on the head to see if there where any chips of steel or anything. Nothing on the magnet at all which I am glad. Will push rods fall all the way to the pan?

 

They break cleanly, so you won't find chips or anything, just the two pieces. Sometimes they make it all the way down to the pan, but not usually.

How many miles were on the engine and what cam do you have?

 

Pop the intake, youll probably find a few spare parts rolling around the galley...

 

I have about 2500 miles on the engine now. I have a zz4 cam with roller tipped rockers which I will replace with roller rockers this time. I have a set of 30lb injectors to put in the car so I may as well pull the intake and do the injectors at the same time. It's funny there are no marks on the head or valve cover from the push rods flying around loose. There are a few small marks on the guide plate. What push rods do you think would be best to replace them all. I don't really rev the engine high much but I want to be safe. Thanks for the input.

 

Any hardened pushrods would be fine. You'll need to find out why things broke in the first place though. Are the heads machined for the extra lift of the ZZ4 cam?

 

Yes, the heads are done.I had the engine built at a very long time shop in the area. Everyone says he's the best around here. You have to go on a waiting list to get things done. Hell he was building a hemi for a car going to Barrett- Jackson one day when I went in to see him.I trust his work completley. He asked me where I got the rockers and push rods when I dropped all the parts off. They where in black unmarked plastic boxes. He thought they would be OK as I am 50 years old and I don't run my stuff hard. I rarely rev the engine up to 5000rpms. I did see it hit just about 6000 one day on a first to second shift.It was my mistake ,I was shifting and it happened quick. I have since had a chip burned and the rev limiter set at 5500rpms.