pushrod wear

[Rudie Del Rude]

My ranger has 175,000 miles on it, its running a little rough lately. It's not pulling any codes, and the valves are making a little bit of noise in both heads. The miles are starting to add up and since there's no codes I get the feeling there's a mechanical issue coming on.

When I get a day off I'm gonna check just about everything. Compression, vacuum, cam lobes, fuel pressure, etc. So I can get a good look at how everything doing.

I've read how the pushrods can start to wear down due to poor oil flow. When does this atart to happen, and how do I tell if they are, do I just measure the length? Any other signs I should look for (discoloured, cracks?)

I think Ive read about flame hardened pushrods or some kind of treated pushrods that resist wear. Anybody know where to get em?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated

 

[Big Jim M]

Howdy Rudie
I never saw a pushrod that didn't have hardened ends on it. I'd leave it alone for a while. When it gets to making really easily heard valve clicking then I'd get new pushrods. While in there I'd be checking for badly worn rockers.
If the rockers are NOT adjustable to take the click out of the valve train, the answer is a slightly LONGER pushrod.
What happens over time is the cam wears a little. The pushrod wears on both ends. The rocker wears on both ends. The valve wears it's tip slightly.
AND if the head has ever been off the valve guy prolly GROUND OFF some of the tip of the valve.
Now all these wear points are worn only SLIGHTLY... but all added up there is sometimes enough to make that damn clicking sound. So what we do is to go down to FORD and purchase the slightly longer push rods.. that takes the assembly back to reasonable again and the thing stops clicking.
Big JIm

 

[trail B2]

I got one of those delta kits I lost the link when I got a virus.It has a rebuilt rocker arm set and a set of push rods together for about $225.It didn't stop my tick completely but I was real surprised how much better it ran.I have about 198000 on that motor.

 

[Rudie Del Rude]

How much freeplay should there be (if any) between the rockers and the valves and/or pushrods?

 

[feellnfroggy]

Youll need a chiltons or haynes or some kind of ford specs for that. But itll be in the thousanths or smaller, Youll need a good set of feeler gauges too,

 

[Big Jim M]

Rudy
With solid lifters the rockers are adjustable and there is a CERTAIN amount of freeplay to measure between the rocker and the valve stem while the engine is at idle..
However with hydrolic lifters the original install is to adjust the rocker 1/2 to 1 full turn after the click stops.. OR in our case the PUSH ROD that is installed is of varying lengths. The stock length works fine until the valve system wears a bunch. At that time the valve system starts making a clicking sound. The repair is to install the next longer length of pushrod. Ford has these.
Big Jim
Yeah, I do know it seems silly to NOT have an adjustment built in, but that is the way Ford built these engines.
Big JIm