Some call for centering the wear pattern. Others, the smaller the wear pattern, the better even if it is off center on the valve tip. Do I flip a coin? I'm gonna' wear out this checking pushrod!

 

I was always told centering it, never heard of the other opinion.

 

Go for the narrowest pattern. If all your components agree perfectly, this will also be centered on the valve stem.

 

I get a nice, tight pattern, with the stock length stick, (7.20), but it's almost 2/3 the way outboard. If I get it more centered, the pattern gets noticeably bigger and shows a push rod shorter than stock, which is REALLY confusing. I mean, I realize a shorter rod moves the pattern towards the inboard side but was under the impression that a bigger cam almost always needed a longer stick just to get back to where the stock one was. BTW, I've got Trickflow heads, (brand new, uncut), Scorpion 1.6's, Delphi/GM lifters, Mr. Gasket head gasket, (.038 compressed which is real close to stock from what I've been able to gather), the block is not decked but it is a small house cam grind. I'm starting to wonder if there's a problem with that. Although, the cam was run on a cam doctor and pronounced healthy.

 

If you only changed the cam, but you've changed everything.

Some things that affect the pushrod length are the base circle, lobe lift, lifters, rocker geometry, head geometry, valve length, valve seat depth, head gasket thickness, deck height and trueness...

 

So, a shorter push rod is not unheard of? Cool.