hillbilly pony

So i read that article about determining custom push rod length. and i put the tool in and tightened the rocker nut till the rod wouldnt spin until the spot on the top of the valve was centered. This meathod did compress the hydraulic lifter. I call ed summit to make sure i was doing it right and they said for hydraulic lifters do not compress the lifter just tighten till there is no up and down play in the rod. Now this meathod did change the length by several 32nds of an inch. BUT the rocker nut was WAY looser also. There is a hex fitting in the center of the rocker nuts and my thought was that was a lock nut that you actually torqued Im very conofused and there is no real "intsruction book" to go by.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated

my77stang

when your adjusting you want the slack gone outta the pushrod but you dont really want to be collapsing the lifter, although once you have the right length when you set them you do collapse the lifter by 1/2 turn - so you could take that into account when checking the length.

OnyxCobra

You cannot check pushrod length with a hydraulic lifter because they collapse, you need to use a solid lifter. If you don't have a solid you can make one pretty easily out of the hydraulic lifter. Here are two links that will help you figure out the correct length. Read both in their entirety.

http://www.compcams.com/information/Products/Pushrods/

http://www.mustangcentral.net/tech/geometry.html