Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines bending push rods

It's possible a valve hit the pistons but from the sounds of it I am not so sure. Those intake valves are not all that strong and once they kissed the piston, it would have bent the valve. Then the motor would have run like dog do. One way to check though is to do a compression check. If any of the cylinders comes up really low, you might have a bent valve. If the head is off, tilt the head on its side with the intake ports facing up and put some solvent, parts wash, in the intake port and if there is a bent valve, the fluid will leak past the closed valve. I think I am with the rest, either coil bind or stuck valve, lacquered or rusted up or possibly just poorly installed valve guides or inserts or something that is binding up the valve. The other thing i guess is really high spring pressure. You don't say, but are you running double springs? The reason I ask is that I had a 235 that I put a clifford cam in way back when I was young, stupid and thought a .512 lift cam in a 235 was a good idea, and the spring pressure was too much for the stock push rods, even the trw aftermarket and had to use chrome moly push rods. The chrome moly rods solved the push rods from bending but of course did not solve the issue of the motor running awful. I still have the cam to remind me that bigger is not always better.