bent pushrod

[battlecr]

Hey guys, don't own a ranger but my niece does, its a 92 with the 4.0l, and I just replaced her pushrods/rocker arms/heads due to excessive wear, the lifters however were just fine, all of the plastic cups on top had disintegrated long before we took it apart. finally got everything back together after the truck had been sitting for about 5 weeks. when trying to fire it up, the engine ran really terrible. cylinders 1,5, and 6 were not firing and had no compression. upon removing the rocker assembly on the driver side(easier to get to) i discovered 2 really bent pushrods. cranked the engine with all the valves closed and there was at least some compression. any ideas as to what might have caused those bent lifters? I'm relatively new to internal engine work.

Thanks for all your help!
Tony

 

[martin]

Check the cam timing, the chain might have jumped a few teeth. that's the only thing I can think of that will bend push rods. Might have bent valves also.

 

[battlecr]

the truck was running fine before and we did not mess with anything lower than the lifters, so i think the cam timing is fine. We did notice that a lot of the plastic cups that sit on top of the lifters had broken off (the truck was running fine with these just flopping around.) maybe those served some sort of purpose? valves are fine, just did a leak down test and the previously affected cylinders hold pressure fine with the rocker assembly removed.

thank you for your quick reply!

 

[yorgy]

Right Pushrods ?

I'm a beginner but from my limited experience and from what I've read on this site ,it's possible to buy pushrods of different lengths . Don't know if that hurts or helps but there it is . yorgy

 

[Big Jim M]

I have seen it many times

First timers doing head jobs sometimes install the pushrods incorrectly.. Not in the lifter cup but on the lifter edge.. Or even not in the rocker cup but on it's edge. then when tightening the rockers the pushrod is bent right then from the very begining.. Your only problem was lack of experience...which you now have.
Big Jim