An interesting pushrod story to share. I recently was working with another shop on a 700" R/M< Raptor headed Top Sportsman motor. This other shop buys all his Manton pushrods thru me. He asked me however to look at this one, as it had another brand pushrod in it. He asked me what would YOU do? I said .160 wall. The owner of the engine said no way, i dont want to change anything. It HAD .080 wall pushrods in it,. with these heads, you have 3 different length pushrods. He knew I had a relationship witht the manufacter of this other brand. Now keep in mind, these are over 11.400" long! Well, the shop takes my advice and says let me call Reher Morrison. They tell him, " yea, we run those .080 all the time" ! Go figure. I have seen, and have proven a drastic difference in other applications where a stiffer pushrod in this similar environment will definately pick up MPH. I was shocked they agreed to still use the .080 wall. So I call and order the pushrods, and the MANUFACTER tells me they dont make them in .080 anymore...lol...which tells you what?????...in the end, the customer, who is Mr Conservative, dont change it, I been running it that way before" kinda guy, has me get .080 wall custom made.


OK, on to YOUR deal, I am in agreement with disturbed, go .120 wall with a 5/16. Ultimately the bigger diameter pushrods column would be substantially stronger, but your in a situation where they may not be feasible, so definately get the additional strength from the thickness as best you can.