Well, took the car out today and it seemed to be running good....

I hope this link works:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1278280237340

Then right about when I got home it started making bad noises. Pulled the valve covers, and found the #3 exhaust pushrod sitting between the intake and exhaust rockers. At first I thought I may have bent a pushrod? went to remove the rocker arms/shaft and the center hold down was really loose:

Another view:

Ouch!! What hold downs??

Now thats real nice. Are/were they new heads? I'm guessing that it can be repaired, but I'd really want to know what caused it before I just fixed it and put it back together. Good luck.
Brian

Is that a pro comp head?

It looks like there was a flaw in the casting?
the other head and all the other rocker stands look fine. The heads are new Victor MW heads, running T&D 1.6:1 rockers. I need to call Edelbrock and see if they will warranty the head, but I'm still out several hours of porting and a valve job, not to mention I don't know where the other 1/2 of the stand went! I'll probably have to pull the motor, clean it out and hope that is the only dammage

I need to go through my old photos and check if there may have been evidence of a crack there when I got the heads?

Maybe i should have got the procomp heads

Sorry, don't see to well in my old age.

Good luck with VIC the DI_K, I had a water pump from them go bad, sent down all kinds of pics to show proof of damage as well as the pump itself and they kept beating around the bush forever as well they quit answering my emails at that point I just gave up and promised to never buy another part certified by the D_CK himself and tell as many ppl as possible about their quality parts, again good luck!!!

If there is enough thread engagement with the stud, I would just mill it flat and use a billet hold down like they use on the early max wedge heads. Angelucci Manufacturing Maybe they will sell you just one. You may have to shim/machine it to get the right height.

How much side clearance on the rockers.

i've seen that type of failure before. we make bolt on rocker stands but we have to have the head to do it.
i would say from what i've seen in the past, it's not normally the fault of the head. in any event, it's certaily repairable.

Call Edlbrock and see if they will look at it and analyse why it failed and repair it for you for no charge Worst thing they can say is no

Should be able to fix that by going to rocker arm stands. Might want to carefully check over the whole valvetrain. You either had something together wrong or else you have a nasty valvetrain harmonic issue. Could be cam, pushrods, valve springs or the combination of those items. Something isn't right there, that is for sure.

I did have 0.020" rocker shaft shims, could that have caused the problem? The cam is a Comp HXL lobe profile which I think is more agressive profile than normal, but is supposed to have better harmonics that the .440 lobe profiles.
The cam is not that big, only 264/264 @ 0.050", 0.714"/0.714" lift (with the 1.6:1 ratio), 112 LSA, installed at 108.
Have 1.6:1 ratio T&D rockers, and 3/8" Smith Brothers pushrods, and all the pushrods/rocker gear appear to be oiling fine.
The springs are PAC 1325 with Crower Ti retainers (+0.100"), machined steel 10-degree locks (standard height), 0.060" spring seat with the correct size inner locator, spring install height is 1.950", seat pressure is 275#, I think the open pressure is 715#, no problem with coil bind, or retainer to guide clearance. I also have plenty of piston to valve clearance. Originally I wanted to install the springs at 2.00" using +0.050" locks which would have reduced the seat pressure to 250#, but the retainer was too close to the bottom of the rocker arm, so I used the standard locks and 1.950" install height.
Could it be the spring pressures are too high for the stands?

Thats what I was kind of thinking...