Well, I got the custom pushrods from Smith Bros and they look nice. I put it all together and the preload was still a little too much but not bad. It ranged from .053-.075". Comp calls for .040-.060". They said I can use some shims under the rocker shafts, so I ordered some .015" ones from Mancini to get me right in the ballpark. They came in today, so I decided to put it together tonight. I was just going to slap it together without going through the measurement process, but I figured I'd better just in case. Good thing I did. Now it has zero preload! I don't get it. I carefully measured for the pushrod length and it was still too much, and now the .015 shims somehow negates over .050" preload? So I took them out and measured again and now they are in spec...all the ones I measured were around .053" so screw it, I put it together. Done. I used exactly the same procedure to measure, but somehow it's inconsistent.

The Mopar rocker shaft setup is generally a good design, but with non-adjustable rocker arms, it's a major pita! The stock Chevy design is much better IMO. Turn the nut to zero lash, crank 3/4 turn down and go on with your life.




I learned this trick from my buddy. Put a piece of coat hanger across the head to hold the pushrods in place until you get the rocker arms installed.