Bent push-rod/possibly getting heads ported

[buickbuggy]

I took the buggy out this past weekend and the last ride started hearing a knock so pulled the valve cover on the side with the noise once I got it home and 1 of the plastic rocker arm retainers let go. There was 1 rocker arm off and the other one for that cylinder the push rod is bent in 2 places and stuck in the head (can't pull it from the top so might have to pull the head to get it out). If I have to pull the head anyways I'd like to look into getting the heads worked for more power (might as well while they're off and am wondering what I could expect to pay and what my options are. I run this in the sand only and have an NA motor from a 1984. I'm not sure what else might be done but am beginning to think it's just the cam, intake, carb, hei ignition, and exhaust. The wife won't allow any crazy spending, so I'd like to get the most bang for my bucks. Thanks for any help/suggestions.

 

[Jay J]

Sounds like a teardown/post mortem is in order. You can see what's going on once you have the intake off; pull the lifters and look down in there with a good light to see what the cam looks like...

 

[charlief1]

If you're looking for an idea of pricing on a port job it will depend on how far you want to go. Bare ported heads with a full race port can run some serious money and that's not including the valves and setting them up. Look in the engine section and there's a sticky called "Follow my port and polish" and it should give you some ideas. If you were near me I'd invite you over to learn how to do it yourself.

 

[buickbuggy]

I hadn't thought about other problems inside the engine. I figured it was just the plastic "button" wore out, I hope there's nothing else but guess I'd better plan on looking into the cam and such too.
I'll look up the thread about porting and see what I can figure out. Thanks

 

[Powertechn2]

Are these heads known to have guides walk and prevent the valve springs from compressing?

I have only seen this on aluminum heads, but just curious.

 

[fuzzyGN]

For the N/A heads, they really benefit the most from a good pocket port and blend. Unless you are running big RPM and/or cam, a full-on port job is probably unnecessary. Look at Charlie's thread and do the area under the valves. The short radius is usually the best bang for the buck. The index finger is your best tool to determine when it is smooth enough.

 

[charlief1]

The guides are cast as part of the heads and have to be machined to replace them.

 

[buickbuggy]

I was able to get the bent push rod out and everything else appears to be ok (sigh of relief), so the only things I'm replacing for now are the rocker arm assembly and 2 pushrod. The lifter appears to have come out of place after the rocker arm came off so I'm going to go to the store and buy a long magnet to try getting it back in place without pulling the intake. I guess since everything else seems to be ok with the heads there's no need to pull them, so no porting will be done at this time. I am looking into other upgrades to get it running smoother and getting more power, so we'll see what comes of that. Thanks for all the input and suggestions.

 

[bison]

Make sure the lobe isn't worn. That could cause a bent pushrod

 

[Chuck Leeper]

What Bison mentioned.
B4 I did the "lifter back in the block trik", I'd want to look at the bottom of it, and the cam..As in look at all the lobes.

 

[buickbuggy]

I got it back together and turned it over manually a few times to make sure it's not a problem with the valves and everything seems to be as it should be. The next step is to put fresh oil in and start it up, then cross my fingers that there really isn't anything else wrong on the inside.