pipe

My friend has a 62 Vette and ran into some problems. First off 2 rocker arm studs broke but luckily he got the broken pieces of the stud laying in the cyl. head. Next he went to pull out 2 of the pushrods and 1 slipped out of his hand and went back down inside the motor. What are the chances of the pushrod laying in the lifter valley and not down in the pan? Instead of pulling the intake off and the distributor out would it be better to take the front pulley off remove the balancer and timing chain cover and go in through the holes in the front of the block? (straight shot at it)? HOW WOULD YOU GUYS DO IT? THANKS FOR ANY HELP Pipe I know this is the C4 section but it's basic motor stuff right. THANKS AGAIN

mseven

it's anyones guess, but I would pull the intake off first before t.cover/oil pan.

Zorro4153

I would pull the intake off. Trying to work thru the little holes in front will not be easy. You should be able to pull the intake faster then the front.
Tony

IRAraid

Unless someone has modified the timing cover and oil pan, the pan has to come off in order to get the timing cover off. Two of the bolts are 'inside-out'. Not a good way to access the lifter valley.
You may be able to snake a magnetic tool on a flexible shaft through the push rod hole and pull it out if you're lucky enough to get the end of the push rod. I've done it and found the push rod broken - I didn't drop it, it went in by itself. It required hours of 'fishing' and I'd have been better off pulling the distributor and intake.
Don't worry about the push rod getting into the pan. It will be lying in the 'valley' under the intake and is likely bent or broken.
Good luck and have patience.

patton

it wont hurt a thing to leave it in there

mr.beachcomber

Odds are that the pushrod is still in the lifter valley unless your friend had the extremely unfortunate luck of dropping #8 exhaust pushrod down the oil drainback hole at the back of the lifter valley.

Didn't say which pushrod slipped out, but here's my method for retrieving small metallic parts out of the lifter valley. First remove the oil fill tube from the front of the intake manifold. Use a magnetic pick-up inserted through that opening to retrieve the pushrod.

If the pushrod is too far back for this method to work, remove the distributor and road draft tube for better access. (I've never seen a pushrod extracted through the road draft tube opening, but you can use it to move the pushrod to a more accessible opening.)

If neither method works, or if you friend has a late model intake instead of the period correct manifold, just remove the intake manifold to retrieve the errant pushrod.

Hope this helps!

Chatman

You should be able to fish it out with a flexible magnet tool. At least I was able to do that on my iron head 86. I was even able to place lifters back in their proper position with the same tool.

That said, I agree that there is very little chance of it causing a problem if left loose in that valley. If it gets in the way of a moving lifter or pushrod, it will just knock it out of the way.

Don't sweat it.

AGENT 86

Been there, done that. Use a telescopic magnet and pull it out. I used the same method to replace a lifter, too.

devildog

I have a 61 that I have run for 40 years and 180,000 miles... I have broken many rocker arm studs, push rods, etc. thru the years.

Do not worry about it... I have probably have three or four pieces of push rods down in the engine. They will not block or damage anything.

If he dropped a complete (not broken) push rod down chances are the cam kicked the lifter out and the lifter is laying in the valley and needs to go back in the hole. Inspect to see if the lifter is still in the hole ?

If the lifter is kicked out of the hole AND it was run a long period that way the lifter body may be damaged and you need to remove the intake and inspect the lifter body for damage.

Joe

schrade

I dropped a distributor holddown bolt once into the distributor hole. I could see it down there plain as day. Laughing at me to I think.

I got a coathanger, folded it in half, put on a wad of RTV, and set it in the hole as gently as I could next to the bolt. Then said a few prayers about how much grease was not on the bolt, and hit the sack.

Next morning, I pulled the hanger, and the bolt.

cv67

If youre lucky it landed in the middle. Otherwise it will make a heck of a racket clanging on the other lifters. Just pull the intake, its not that bad.

davenbocafl

leave it there, whats it going to hurt? I once left a 3/4 wrench in the lifter galley and didnt realize it until 6 years later when i pulled the intake,hehe

MacManNM

Pull the intake. You should do a visual inspection anyhow. It isn't hard, and will prob only take 2 hrs from start to finish. If nothing else its piece of mind.

LD85

IMO leaving it in is not an option, knowing it is in there and not getting it out will make you crazy with worry , and could leave you stranded some day in the future.

Half right,,, is ALL wrong

STL94LT1

BrianCunningham

We dropped a pushrod under my friends LT1 when we were putting roller rockers on it.

We fished it out with a magnet all was fine!

pipe

THANKS for all the reply's everyone. My friend started allready and pulled off the intake before we could see if it could be fished out with a magnet. He found the bent pushrod laying in the valley and also the lifter was kicked out of it's bore so I guess it was a good idea to pull the intake anyway. Wonder what caused all this trouble? The car has a solid lifter cam in it and not sure what rockers or anything else. Maybe the rocker nuts went out of adjustment and everything else got sloppy bent the pushrod and broke the stud also? Maybe he should get a set of poly lock nuts for the rockers? Pipe