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350 help please

2K views 28 replies 16 participants last post by  Bc1980 
#1 ·
buying a truck with a 350 in it, the rocker arm nuts we're tightened all the way and someone tried to start the truck that way, there are 2 bent pushrods that i know of, will i have bent valves too? or am i just going to have to replace the pushrods?
 
#2 ·
it's possible that there are a few valves bent. easiest way i have found is to remove all the rocker arms on the affected head, and put a straight edge across the top of the valve stems on that side to see if there is any height difference between cylinders. if you find one that isn't touching the straight edge that valve is bent.
 
#3 ·
I guess I have to ask... why were the nuts tightened down all the way?
if it was just a dumb kid trying to adjust them or was it because it has bigger problems? and he didn't know any better? secondly does it still run?
 
#4 · (Edited)
time to break out the background story of this truck.


a guy i know bought it and i guess he never drove it, it got warm and overheated or something (going by the guess of i found 2 thermostats inside the truck) and i was told someone found coolant in the oil, so my friend took the truck to one of his "licensed mechanic" friends and paid him to do the head gasket. he calls me a few weeks later and asks me if i know how to adjust the valvelash and set the timing. so i head down there and pull the driverside valve cover and go to set the motor on TDC, when i did that i noticed that we we're missing a pushrod or two. then i looked at the rocker nuts and the we're cranked all the way down. idiot "mechanic" put it back together wrong after he did the headgasket.


needless to say i picked it up from the "mechanic's" house and he was trying to tell us that the only thing wrong with the motor was that it had a couple of collapsed lifters and the timing needed to be set.
 
#7 ·
well if your lucky the head will be torqued right also? I would check everything coming out of a deal like that. who knows how bad the engine could be it may have been sitting all this time with coolant in the cylinders and oil pan. good luck getting it running
 
#13 ·
X a billion!!!

If he didn't know how to adjust rocker arms I would also pull the heads because you know he did not torque them right either!

Sense you are that far into the motor now is a good time to upgrade cam as well, judging by the looks of those push rods there is a good chance you might also have damaged lifters and maybe a cam lobe.
 
#16 ·
WOW. in all my years of basket case chevys I have never seen pushrods bent so bad. I would pull the heads and jerk the valves they all have to be bent. plus you may have piston damage or a cracked head. un freak'n believable
 
#26 ·
Holy S#!T


after seeing that much damage i would scrap the engine and start used..

by the time you start adding up stuff that should be replaced after catastrophic failure like that you might be better off.
someone needs to kick that guy in the nutz.And take away his tools.
 
#28 ·
That's not necessary even as bad as it looks. I have saved many an engine from the scrap heap... its just parts. the only way an engine is wasted is if the block broke to the point it can't hold a starter or coolant. I have bandaided some serious fuck ups in my time.
 
#27 ·
HOLY CRAP! Man....I have never seen anything like that before! Wow.........um...yeah wow thats about all i have to say... Oh and don't let that idiot touch a wrench ever again!
 
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