I am looking for a good set of pushrods for a mildly modified 305. Just looking to upgrade and replace the old ones, but I am not sure of what brand to get. I had been looking at Proform but they seem to have a lot of bad reviews, at least on Summit Racing. Don’t need anything overly fancy but I do want something nice. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

Define mildly modified? What lifters and rocker arms are you running? Cam specs? Anything done to the heads like guideplates etc. Factory pushrods are likely fine for anything you are doing to a 305.

 

Factory pushrods is all you will need

 

PRs aren't the kind of thing that make much difference to anything, unless they're damaged in some way, or other parts around them have been changed so as to put more stress on them. Definitely not the first thing on the list of beneficial mods, like, you're taking a bone stock car, and the very first thing you do as an upgrade, is change them. Yeah, ... no.

What do you want or expect to accomplish, besides just shrinking your bank account, by replacing them?

 

I am running a Howard’s 210/214 hydraulic roller cam with Howard’s lifters. The rest of the “mods” are a Performer intake and a four barrel carb. None of the pushrods seem to be damaged besides normal wear and tear. Since they have around 180,000 miles on them should I replace them or just wait until one of them gets damaged? If and when I do replace them what brand should I go with?

 

If they aren't bent, twisted, or flattened on the ball ends, no reason to replace them. They are pretty hard to wear out unless you had an engine failure due to cam, broken valvetrain, etc. Any OEM replacement would suffice. Some folks are brand loyal but for your application it doesn't really matter. It becomes different when you are making big power on a solid or semi solid roller lifter with roller rockers holding at 7500rpm.

 

Ok! Thanks for the information!

 

One caveat I forgot to mention. Does your new set-up command pushrods that are the same length? If not, then yes you would need to change them. If your measurement came up the same than factory is fine.

 

No need to worry about it.

Did you replace the valve springs? If not, that's one way to generate a need for PRs before you know it.

 

They will work with the factory length, and no I didn’t change the valve springs. Is that something I should consider at some point?

 

Springs need to be matched to the cam.

 

I choose the cam that gave the maximum lift without requiring stiffer springs according to Howard’s.

 

YES. 1000000 time YES.

"According to Howards" doesn't take into account that they already had however many miles on them, and were TOTAL CRAP (aka stock) to begin with. NEW stock springs, yeah you could get away with running on an aftermarket cam for a few miles; old used stock CRAP, a whole different ball game.

Change the valve springs and their hardware. Put just yerbasic entry-level 1.25" ones on there, from a cam mfr, NOT parts store (unless they have a brand name such as Comp or whoever). The basic Summit springs like that https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-174000 would be fine. You might be AMAZED at how much difference it makes. You might not think so butt it's true. The new seals in that kit might even help with the oil control issue you don't realize you have.

 

👍

 

Roll each pushrod on a flat piece of steel or a piece of glass to check for straightness. Any wobble throw it out, be sure they are clear for oil flow.

 

I did check the pushrods and they all seem to be awfully straight so I am okay on that front.