440 Pushrods

[Pro74PW]

I have a freind that is having a hell of a time with the pushrods on his newly rebulit 440. He bought stock pushrods and they are 9 1/4 inches long, about 1/4 inch too long. He has a new crane cam and lifters he put in. He thinks he should order custom length rods. Shouldn't the stock ones work? What do you guys think could be wrong? Thanks

[Lee Pritchard]

9.250 are for solid lift cam....9.150 is for hyd cams.... what cam does he have ?????

[Pro74PW]

He has a hydraulic cam and adjustable rockers. If he adjusts them down to 2 threads then the valve starts to open. He also says the spark plugs are too long, the top of the piston hits them and closes the gap.
Is it possible that the block and heads were shaved and could be causing this problem?

[Glen440]

He is running smallblock plugs that are long reach. Bigblocks need the short plugs. There are special pushrods to use adjustable rockers with hydraulic cams.
I had probs with my 440 when I put a mech cam in. The factory pushrods were too short. I got cut to length to fix it. The funny thing was the rockers came off my 400 that used factory oushrods. So I know it wasn't the rockers. It was just weird.

[Lee Pritchard]

If the push rods he has are 9 1/4 long or 9.250 they are for solid cam with adj rockers arms...he needs 9 1/8 or 9.150 for hyd cam with adj rockers... sounds like that will fix his problem...most places cary them , like jegs and summit.... on the spark plug thing, he should be using a J13y or J12y champion plug... if thats hitting the piston you have something very wrong!! does he have flat top pistons ??? 906 heads??......Lee.....