ok cool, cause those are the same as mine, ive just read to torque it down and others (like the video) say to tighten down till the rod is hard to twist. but ill order the shorter push rods tomorrow and try again lol

 

I had an old friend who would tighten them barely then torque them when the engine started the first time.. I've always just torqued them. never had a problem. I've also bought crate engines they came already tight and all. You could rotate and tighten if it makes you feel better..

 

went to the machine shop today to get my truck dyno'd and make sure A/F was safe. While there i was asking the guys about this windsor motor, turns out i had non adjustable rail style rockers from who knows what year 351, and arp rocker studs that were ment for adjustable rocker arms, so i ordered a set of comp roller tip rockers, and poly lock nuts so that the system will be adjustable and the mix match set of parts will work.

 

Are you thinking adjustable rockers with a hydraulic cam? That wont work. If your using a hydraulic cam you need non adjustable rockers.

 

Sure you can run adjustables with a hydraulic cam - you just have to adjust them properly. Small block Chevys were always adjustable.

 

reading the fine print on the arp studs, it says not to use with factory lock nuts only use with adjustable poly nut, and it was cheaper to get roller tip rail rocker and poly nuts then to get new studs, non rail rockers and guide plates. i do appreciate all the help from you guys, but it was nice to be able to take the parts i had to some one local that could see for themselves and find out exactly what the problem was that was throwing the geometry off

 

ok so i finally got the cam swapped, along with installing the correct rocker arms for that year of heads... and a new coil and dizzy. however i went to fire it up for the first time and it started but as soon as i let off the starter it dies... after several more tries it does the same thing. runs like a champ until i disengage the starter, and idk if it will make a difference or not but the key ignition has been bad since i bought it so several years ago i wired a button to the starter solenoid and that always worked on the previous motor so thats what im doing to start this one for now. idk however if the coil is only getting juice from the start circuit and not the run circuit or if the valve adjustment is off or what????

 

ok, i ran a wire from the bat to the coil and that seemed to fix that problem. it ran with me giving it some throttle (about 2000 rpm) for about a min before it died and backfired as soon as it died