64 Bent Pushrods

[john corbs]

Have me a 64 Thunderbird that I've found to have bent a few pushrods. I'm looking for any potential causes to this, and anything to look for when replacing them. It's a project car, have driven it only a handful of times. Have seen an older video of it running and the ticking is there but must have not been enough to concern me. I should note that I changed the oil recently, I had a little less than 4qt of 5w-30, and had a few extra quarts of 10w-40 from a honda transmission that I used, just don't know if this could be a possible cause. Does the motor sound to be running alright, other than the ticking? It seems to be, to me at least; would like to note that there is zero blow-by when running or revving the engine. A big thank you in advance.

Car running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDNEmN6Ltmg

Of bent pushrods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDSEKc90wG4

[john corbs]

Also I had meant to put this under the regular 64-66 forum I apologize. Should I repost or could it be moved?

[losendos]

You put used oil in your engine?

[Rusty57]

And from a transaxle! Lots of good fine metal from gears and synchro’s.

[john corbs]

I worded it weird, it was extra oil, unused. It was leftover from when i changed it on my civic as it only takes 2qt. Used it in a pinch, and was trying to think of anything i did that couldn've caused this.

[jtschug]

Old gas bends pushrods. How old was the gas in it? Do you use gasoline stabilizer when the car is stored?

[Alan H. Tast]

Old gas bends pushrods. How old was the gas in it? Do you use gasoline stabilizer when the car is stored?

A big reason for bending pushrods is that varnish builds up in the valvetrain (lifter bores, valve guides); things start to get gummy and 'sticky' and starting/warming up the engine in this condition is a recipe for disaster, hence you start bending push rods.

Now, I'm really relying on others here to give a better description of how to deal with old oil and varnish in the valvetrain to prevent bending pushrods in the first place. It's been a long time since I've had to deal with this issue (I had a '63 Galaxie 500/XL 4-door hardtop with a 352-2v 30+ years ago that did this), and with my '63 hardtop having sat for the last 10+ years I really need to do some preventive maintenance before startup. The question, though, is what's the current 'best-practice' method to deal with varnish build-up in the valvetrain short of a complete teardown/rebuild.

(The following may need to be edited as I'm not sure this is the 'right' thing to do - more research is needed to have the correct answer - and, as always, I'd welcome others to chime in on this - AHT)

I would suggest first off to drain the fuel system, clean out the lines and tank, replace the fuel filter and maybe even replace the fuel pump to make sure you have a 'clean and fresh' fuel supply. If if you have a car that's been stored an extended period of time in a non-running condition, consider pulling off the valve covers, loosening the valvetrain, pull the pushrods and keep them in the same order that they were in the car (a board with a pair holes big enough to stick the push rods into, corresponding to each bank of cylinders from front to back and side-to-side, helps organize them). Once that's done, pull the distributor out of the engine (make sure to mark where the rotor is aligned, along with the distributor body to the intake manifold). Why? To allow you to run the oil pump shaft back down to the oil pump and spin the shaft with a drill to run oil through the engine with some motor flush or something similar to help clean out the oil passages.

You'll want to drain the old oil, change the oil filter, and refill with a new filter before you do all this with the understanding that you'll be throwing away the newly-installed oil and filter after this is done before you even think about firing up the engine. What I'm not sure about is whether to refill with new oil and a motor flush or something similar - it's good insurance to not reuse the old oil, and have a 'sacrificial' fill at this stage. This at least allows you to circulate good oil into the system and flush things out before you start to turn the crank and camshaft.

You don't want to turn over the engine yet - just get the oil flowing (the pump is independent from the crank and cam as the pump is run off the shaft that comes out of the bottom of the distributor). It should go without saying that before trying to start the engine that the concoction of oil/motor flush should be drained and replaced with fresh oil, and the filter should be replaced as well.

Get to know how to find Top Dead Center of the #1 piston and setting the distributor in the right position, especially if you ended up hitting the starter while the distributor was out.

[john corbs]

The gas thats in there now is about 4 months old, with some MMO in there (not a fuel stabilizer, I know) . I've ran the engine and drove the car a good amount of times with this gas in there before I started to hear even a slight ticking. Before that, I had gas in there maybe 18 months before it ran out.
If nothing else, I'll just replace the bent ones and see if they end up bending themselves again, making sure I don't let the gas get too old again.

[john corbs]

Old gas bends pushrods. How old was the gas in it? Do you use gasoline stabilizer when the car is stored?

A big reason for bending pushrods is that varnish builds up in the valvetrain (lifter bores, valve guides); things start to get gummy and 'sticky' and starting/warming up the engine in this condition is a recipe for disaster, hence you start bending push rods.

Now, I'm really relying on others here to give a better description of how to deal with old oil and varnish in the valvetrain to prevent bending pushrods in the first place. It's been a long time since I've had to deal with this issue (I had a '63 Galaxie 500/XL 4-door hardtop with a 352-2v 30+ years ago that did this), and with my '63 hardtop having sat for the last 10+ years I really need to do some preventive maintenance before startup. The question, though, is what's the current 'best-practice' method to deal with varnish build-up in the valvetrain short of a complete teardown/rebuild.

(The following may need to be edited as I'm not sure this is the 'right' thing to do - more research is needed to have the correct answer - and, as always, I'd welcome others to chime in on this - AHT)

I would suggest first off to drain the fuel system, clean out the lines and tank, replace the fuel filter and maybe even replace the fuel pump to make sure you have a 'clean and fresh' fuel supply. If if you have a car that's been stored an extended period of time in a non-running condition, consider pulling off the valve covers, loosening the valvetrain, pull the pushrods and keep them in the same order that they were in the car (a board with a pair holes big enough to stick the push rods into, corresponding to each bank of cylinders from front to back and side-to-side, helps organize them). Once that's done, pull the distributor out of the engine (make sure to mark where the rotor is aligned, along with the distributor body to the intake manifold). Why? To allow you to run the oil pump shaft back down to the oil pump and spin the shaft with a drill to run oil through the engine with some motor flush or something similar to help clean out the oil passages.

You'll want to drain the old oil, change the oil filter, and refill with a new filter before you do all this with the understanding that you'll be throwing away the newly-installed oil and filter after this is done before you even think about firing up the engine. What I'm not sure about is whether to refill with new oil and a motor flush or something similar - it's good insurance to not reuse the old oil, and have a 'sacrificial' fill at this stage. This at least allows you to circulate good oil into the system and flush things out before you start to turn the crank and camshaft.

You don't want to turn over the engine yet - just get the oil flowing (the pump is independent from the crank and cam as the pump is run off the shaft that comes out of the bottom of the distributor). It should go without saying that before trying to start the engine that the concoction of oil/motor flush should be drained and replaced with fresh oil, and the filter should be replaced as well.

Get to know how to find Top Dead Center of the #1 piston and setting the distributor in the right position, especially if you ended up hitting the starter while the distributor was out.

I'll see about doing this all, thanks. for now I'm just gonna try and find out what size pushrods the engine takes, and procedure to replace the bent ones. Thanks

[stubbie]

When you first got the car had it been sitting for any amount of time? Fe engines are known for bending pushrods if you start them without doing some pre start work first. Always a good idea to remove plugs squirt some oil into the cylinders and rotate by hand a few times before strating them.