Amazon: Bent Push Rod

[142 Guy]

I am not opposed to the three piece design. The high performance pushrods sold by Isky are a three piece design and I have been running them since 2014. That split in the rod at the cup end is an absolute no-go for me. That is a manufacturing flaw (hole was not drilled out sufficiently to accept the pressed in cup) or a design flaw (push rod walls too thin). Either way. you need to contact VP about a refund. I find that VP has become a little disappointing with their product quality.

I was going to offer up one of my original pushrods for the cost of shipping because I replaced all the pushrods when I switched to the shorter SBC style lifters which require a longer pushrod. However, I just came back from checking in the garage and it looks like I included the lifters in a package of stuff that I sold to my friend for spares on his 1971 1800E so that is a no-go.

Scandcar
https://classic-volvo.com/push-rod-b18-b20.html
and Nordicar in the Netherlands appear to sell single original pushrods; but, you are now dealing with a longer wait and shipping costs. The Volvo part number on the original pushrods is 418304 and if you do a Google search you will find that this is also a valid Volvo Penta number. If there is a Penta Marine dealership near you, it may be possible that they have single pushrods in stock.

Be aware that there are high performance pushrods available; but, these are slightly larger diameter and in all cases that I am aware of are longer, meant for use with the shorter SBC style lifter. They are good (I have them); but, you cannot mix and match with OEM lifters. To use a high performance push rod you need to remove the head and replace with a correct lifter and if you are going to that effort you would want to replace all the lifters and pushrods so that they are matching.

[c1800]

Agree with 142G, that new pushrod is no good. Surprised it got through even a basic QC.

Check with Mike Dudek at Iroll motors, I don’t see pushrods on his website , but has parts that aren’t shown and I’d speculate he has a supply of good used ones.

Mike is very helpful, knowledgable and dependable. And not a terribly long way from you.

Give him a call.

http://irollmot.ipower.com/

[blueosprey90]

Smith Brothers sells pushrods in the U.S. Google "Smith Brothers Pushrods"

[Ron Kwas]

bo90;

...I guess Smith Brothers must have expanded their business...last I knew, they only sold cough drops...

Cheers

[morwenna240]

Ah, that advert looks, erm, late 19th century.. . . Have you discovered the Elixir of Life, Ron?

[ColoradoAmazon]

VP Autoparts did say that the push rod is defective and they offered a replacement or a refund.

I called Joe Lazenby and he said he has some original push rods so I will just get a couple from him so they all match. Waiting for Joe to get home and ship them out.

I'll provide an update when I eventually get the whole thing back together.

Thanks everyone for the input!

[blueosprey90]

I was just wanting to be helpful. Smith Brothers does makes pushrods.

https://www.pushrods.net/

[ColoradoAmazon]

I received the original rocker arms from Joe and have slowly been inspecting everything.

I'm a little afraid to ask but is it normal for the ends of the rocker arms to be blue? I'm guessing it's from heat maybe due to lack of lubrication.

I don't think the valve springs are binding.

I plan to go with a .016-.018 valve clearance.

[Rustinmotion]

That looks more like engineering blue than heat discolouration, try washing it off with a little solvent, if it’s not that it could be heat treatment blue would be hard like a chisel not brittle just tough

[Derek UK]

Yes, the pads may have been refaced and engineers blue used to check them.