When it warms up I'll pull the rockers and see if I can post some pics.

The oil definitely isn't timed. I may say the hell with it and send them to RAU or whatever their name is now and and have them put full width bushings in them.

The saga continues:

My tappet noise was getting louder and louder so I pulled the intake and valley and two more pushrods had jumped out of the rockers. And coincidentally (or not) they were all exhaust valve train components. It's almost like the lifters on those lobes (with higher lift, of course) won't stay pumped up.
I primed the pump while watching those lifters, but honestly didn't see much out of the ordinary. Of course, the pushrods were oiling.

I just went ahead and ordered the Howards lifters that were suggested (made by Morel, I think),and put them in.
My warm idle oil pressure doubled from about 12 psi to about 25psi. My warm running psi went from just under 40 to just over 50. A marked improvement. Still low (I think) for a rebuilt motor, but now I feel like I can at least drive the car and put some rpms on it without doing damage.

I will also be ordering pushrods without oil feed holes, but the ones I had worked with the new lifters (and with .040 shims.) Hopefully I will get some more improvement in oil pressure and be where I should be.

warm idle at 25 & hot running at 50, I think you are OK for PSI (the #'s themselves dont look inadequate).

You said it had higher pressure with the other pump.......

Try swapping the bypass spring from the first pump into the new pump.

Have you verified if the holes in the adjuster screws go all the way through from top to bottom?(curious about this as I thought I remembered that's how they are, but I don't really trust my memory on this)

When you prime the motor, do you still have a high volume of oil flowing from the small hole on the top of the rocker body?
If yours have that hole intersecting a space/groove between the bushings, IMO, there needs to be some sort of restriction added there.

First, thanks for the advice on the Howards lifters. Valve train is much quieter now and not popping out pushrods...and higher oil pressure is great too!! Those Comp Cam lifters were causing more that one problem for me, apparently.

I have the oil pump spring all shimmed up, so I know that's not it. If I ever get to the point where I feel I have too much pressure, I'll remove the shims and go from there. Right now, I am just eliminating that variable.

The adjuster screws are NOT drilled all the way thru. They are drilled part way thru and then cross drilled, which leads to an other drilling thru the rocker. So oil goes thru the rocker, into the screw, and then down into the cup (as you would expect.) No oil comes thru the top of the screw...only the bottom.
Of course, in my case, since I have oiling pushrods, the oil is going the 'wrong way' and into the rocker shaft and then adding to the total volume.

This time when I was priming it, I was not on TDC, so the oil was not coming into the shaft from the heads at that time. Oil was coming thru the push rods and then eventually out of the large hole on top rockers. But it was not very much oil. It was what I would consider a 'reasonable' amount.

Now when I have the engine lined up t TDC and the oil is coming thru both the pushrods AND thru the head, then there is so much oil that it shoots way up into the air thru that hole in the rocker.

In summary, I don't know which method is contributing the most oil (thru the head which is a lot, but metered; or thru the pushrods which seems like a reasonable amount, but continuous), but the combination of the two is obviously too much.
And I think that hole in the top of the rockers just lets to much oil out, too quickly.

Keep in mind, all the oil coming through the pushrods is "extra" oil, and that equals 16 extra "Leaks" in the oil system.

I wouldn't be surprised if swapping to the correct pushrods puts the oil pressure right where it should be.

Thanks for the info on the adjuster screws.
Sounds like they are made correctly.

Yeah, I'm going to order some proper pushrods. I guess they will have to be custom since I can't find any off the shelf that are the right length that are non-oiling (need about 8.40".)

In the mean time, I feel like I can at least drive the car with 50psi and start getting some other things right, like the EFI. I just won't be trying any redline runs until I have the right pushrods

Why not just plug the pushrods?
Doug

Not really sure of a good way to do that. DId a google search, but didn't come up with much except for posts where people tried it, but nothing really 'stuck'...i.e. whatever they tried to plug it with eventually came loose.

I was almost thinking I could put a tiny spot weld on the end and then grind it flat...but that's maybe a little cheesy and a lot of work when you realize that you have to do it 16 times and if you screw up, you have to buy a new pushhrod anyways...

I wouldn't be afraid to drill/tap em & plug with some threaded inserts with a touch of JB weld. You ain't removeing enough material to adversely affect the pushrod strength and when done the insert ain't going anywhere.

Just buy the pushrods.

I tried a few different methods of plugging them. Roll pins was the answer. They haven't moved at all. I would just solder up the hole before install.
Doug

Would plain 5/16 steel (not chromoly) pushrods be adequate? For about a 5500rpm redline and beehive springs w/ 1.6 rockers. So maybe high 300#s at open.
I found the right length, non-oiling from a Ford inline 6. Readily available and pretty cheap. But they are not performance oriented pushrods. Plain steel and welded ball ends. They are the Comp High Energy brand.
Otherwise I will have to buy custom order at about 5x the price.

I'll answer your question with a question......

Is the difference in price between the good pushrods and the ones you know deep down aren't what you should put in the motor more or less than the cost of a tow home from 100-200 miles away?

I'd be OK with em as far as the RPM range (but I ain't up on spring psi ranges) so wait for others who know more.

Did you ever get the non oiling pushrods installed?

Yes I did.

THe main fix was to replace the Comp Cam lifters with Howard's (made by Morel, I'm about 99% sure.)
But changing the push rods increased idle another 5psi and pressure at speed a few psi, from just under the 50 mark to just over 50. And I think the small difference there is because I probably need to shim up the spring in the pump to see the real benefit here.

So summary:

Comp Cam lifter and oiling pushrods = 12 psi at idle and collapsing lifters.

Howard's (Morel) lifters and oiling pushrods = 25psi @ idle and no collapsing lifters (they work great so far.)

Howard's lifters and non oiling pushrods = 30psi at idle.