You just don't like watching my videos do you?
I have tested it with no load. Bent a stock push rod pretty bad from the high lift. Makes sense why they call it an "aggressive" profile.
Also learned in the process i needed to vent the crankcase or oil would seep past the piston rings and smoke like James Bonds' personal smoke screen due to gained compression.
Have since sold my .290 cam. Today I ordered chromoly pushrods which are pretty much guaranteed not to ever bend.
Sorry,Bob. I did not order the cut-to-length ones like you wanted me to but the regular stock Hemi length ones.
1) There is a hole in the block between the lifters that vents to the valve cover IIRC.
2) crankcase needs additional venting in high rpm applications due to air turbulence from the crankshaft (think giant fan spinning in block). Unvented cranks at high rpms can blow the sidecover gaskets.
3) your smoke problem could be something else wrong in your cylinder bore or head (piston, rings, bore, valve guides, valve seals) why do you believe its smoking 'due to gained compression'? That makes absolutely no sense at all.
4) why do you think the push rod was bent due to high lift? The chrome moly rods are just stiffer, and don't FLEX as easily as the stock push rods. A high lift cam doesn't just make them bend, they only FLEX under high rpms. I think it could be something else you didn't think of. You also jacked with your timing/cam timing, so you could have had
A) piston to valve contact, so the push rod bent instead of the valve
B) spring bind, which caused the push rod to bend
did you clearance the valve to piston after all changes?
did you measure spring compression after all changes?
valve lash set properly?
ring end gap?
rings clocked?
piston and bore inspected/measured?
The answer to why your engine is smoking and bent pushrod might be there. Also, there are limits to the ability of the engine to function if you go jacking with the cam lobes like that. I wonder how much lift you were getting.
