wondering if I should start a new thread?

 

Hate to say it,but with bent push rod problems now (the deeper rabbit hole), would pull the lifter blocks to check the lifters, pull the nose cone cover to check out the cam lobs/ cam bearing, as well as do a real check on the crank run-out/its crank bearing, and check the nose cover bushings as well.

If you do have to pull the rocker boxes, would be a good time to check the torque on the head bolts, and even install some rocket locks since they are only about $15 for a set.

 

With that much compression and bent rod(s) I'd think the cam is too much lift for the springs. Meaning - it takes a LOT to bend one and a valve will bend before a rod would. If the springs are too short, coil bind could have caused the bend. The front exhaust is just plain backed off for whatever reason.

With so many unknowns, all any can do is guess and I agree, get the cam cover off and see what you have in there.

 

Could be valve seals not seated deep enough, too much lift on the cam for the valve springs in play with them coil binding up, or simple as just the push rod that did come out of adjustment to come out of the rocker and tappet seats, and when the tappet pushed the rod up cocked out of place, caused it to bend at the canted angle. If you have adjusted push rods that are bent, the that is kind of screaming that the valve springs are coil compress binding and the springs are not correct for the addition amount of valve lifts.

The one thing that I would check with the push rod not adjusted correctly, it pull the rocker box, pull the rocker off the guide pin, and check the rocker bushings from lack of lube to it. Hence oil flow goes from tappet up the push rod, into the push rod side of the rocker cup, through the rocker to lubes its bushings to the rocker guide rod pins, then dumps the oil out of the rocker on the valve side of the rocker. So lack of lube to the rocker bushings to the guide rod pin with the top of push rod not seated in the rocker cup area, is a quick way to wear out the rocker bushings against its guide pin when the inside of it is not being lubed.

If you find that the rocker bushings are way worn, bushings can be replaced if you have a way to replace and line bore them to size..

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sRKokv3ifnnWqZwz7 - link to photo album instead of editing and uploading all of them here

I dont really see a whole lot, just a little wear on the end of the pinion shaft and the bushing. Pinion shaft is at .008 runout.
black soot at base of rear jug?

revtech ev100 cam- hard to find info about this cam
appears to be KB Performance .020 pistons- hard to find any info on theses or the cam?

If I need to provide any other pics let me know and I will.

could it be as simple as the pushrods just not being installed correctly? apparently this was rebuilt a few years ago and didnt get much use as my dad had been battling health issues for a while.

really appreciate the help guys, it means a lot to get this thing going

 

REVTECH EV 100 CAM. OPEN CLOSE DUR LIFT INT. 21 53 254 .512 EXH. 55 19 254 .512”, while a stock L cam has ,495" of lift.

even with stock springs and valve seals set correctly in depth, should be safe with .600" of valve lift. it looks like you have the HD valve seal in play, and would take a look at them through the springs to make sure they where seated all the way correctly. Also, since you do have a dial indicator, would indicate off the top of the valve caps, and using something like a mill or press and not damaging the head sealing surfaces for the head gaskets, compress the valves down to see at what point you are getting either max depth or valve spring coil binding. As stated, unless the springs where changed to to something else, should be getting at least .600" of valve opening before any binding. If this checks out, then bent push rod where most likely from not being adjusted correctly/losing their adjustement, and what caused them to be bent. If your finding that that amount of lift on the valves is say .550" range from different springs, cutting to too close with spring vibration harmonics at compression for the .512" lift, and could be the reason that the push rods where bent instead.

As for cam, should have the D washer that goes against the case, a second shim washer for that side, and a quick check, should show that the cam can move side to side about .010" when the nose cone is back in place. If second shim was not installed, could explain why the cam can walked so much more back and forth instead.


So on that note, put the cam back in with a few bolts on the nose cone cover and gasket, reach through the lifter block openings, and see what amount of side play you have side to side. Before that, would even goes as far as to check the fit of the cam to nose cone cover bushing. Should have a few thousands of slop between the cam to bushing, but not enough that you can rock the cam up and down much instead. If too much slop, then gets kind of rough,since the cam replacement bushing really needs to be line bored to size using the cam bearing channel to keep it trammed.

Also, with pulling the heads, replace the base gaskets when you put everything back together. Just pull the pistons down enough in the jugs to pull the wrist pin clips on one side(make sure to stuff the top of case opening with rags so if you drop the C clip, it not going to end up in the case), then push the wrist pins out with the upper part of the pistons in the cylinders still. If you pull the pistons out of the cylinder,then will need to replace the rings and cross hatch since HD does not use location pins for the rings on the pistons, so will never get the rings index back to where they where mated into the the cylinders on the old positions.
Note, for the low miles on the cylinders after upper end rebuild, not seeing much cross hatching to begin with. Hence cross hatching is needed for the rings to mate in the first place,as well as give the cylinder walls a place to hold oil as well.

Last one, before you install the lifter blocks back on, double check the alignment of the gasket to the oil passage and bolt passages, and make sure to use the indexing tool pins to get the alignment of the block to case with gasket placement correct.

Lets just say not the best of alignment to begin with, and lot of the oil passage being blocked by the gasket on the last install. Myself, if the gasket oil passage was this far out with gasket centered to the bolts channels before block install, have a hole punch that I made on a lathe to over size punch the oil channels in the gasket to get them to align better to start with.

 

I added the best pictures I could get of the valve seals. sure looks like they are good, and they both look the same but really hard to see. I have drill press but the table moves when I compress the springs, so I need to try to come up with a good way to do that.

I have drill press but the table moves when i compress the springs so I need to try to come up with a good way to do that. valves being at an angle dont help either



those shims were both there and in place correctly



again pretty hard to get a measurement on this but I cant move the cam side to side at all with my fingers. or if I am moving it I cant feel it. My feeling is that its ok.

cam to nose cone- if I rock the cam I get some movement but trying to go side to side i get nothing and Im not able to get a gauge in there. Also seems like this is ok



alright, so ill order some gaskets and new pushrods and put all back together as you have said here. ill try to get it somewhere to test the valve movement if I cant find a way to do it.

when it first died on me it didn't feel like a miss or anything came first, just started backfiring and then died and barely restarted once. Really hoping it was just the pushrod deal.

I might wait a little while to order parts. supposed to be saving up for vacation right now. I'm on it though

guess i should go ahead and pull the other head too and see what it looks like. might give me some more info

just remembering that I forgot to ask about something. This engine is an S&S block so is there something else I can look at to see what model year I should use when ordering parts?

also since I have the heads off and the valve springs are in question should I just get a new set and what world I look for to do that? Im not really concerned with the high performance stuff if it can be more reliable

 

Be a good idea to simply take the serial number off the engine case, call S&S to find out what you have or at least what it started as.

It may have been a short block or (less likely) a complete engine. May even be a stroker and/or a big bore. Too many variables to guess at "over the internet."

Good news is the valves didn't hit the pistons and things look to be in order in the cam chest. Valve springs and heads look to be set up to handle a big cam and the rocker arms may be high ratio. Bottom line - it was running before and from the photos I can't see any reason it shouldn't run again with exception of the bent push rods and whatever may be going on with the ignition or fuel system.

 

Try putting the serial number in here……
https://www.sscycle.com/tech-info/engine-serial-lookup

 

I realized after posting last - The flywheel in the photo is '90-'92 HD OEM flywheel judging by the gears and nut. S&S uses 5-piece flywheels for all it's Evo stuff and '84-'89 hardware on the pinion shaft.

The heads and cylinders are OEM as well so it's not a S&S crate engine or stroker.