This is going to sound real crazy but in a 1978 4.9 inline six are the push rods all the same size or are some diff lengths. The reason I ask is I had a bent pushrod and just went ahead and replaced all of them. A friend helped me set the rocker arm nuts and on some even with the nut tightened down the rocker arm was still loose. I don't have the old ones I've already gotten rid of them. Should it have solid or hydrolic lifters from the factory? Can anyone help?

 

Man , its been a long time , but yea they offer them in -.60, under .60 . [an] +.60 over .60,thousands to allow for any head or vavle train worked had been on the engine.. , An yes they are HYd. lifters . Kinda odd you bent a push rod , did you have a lifter collaspe ? On the drivers side of the motor there is that long side eng. cover you can remove to gain acess to your lifters an such , Did you remove it ? Do you have acess to a dial indicator. Also Ive seen the rocker crack an split.. Are you sure that you got the pusrod centered in the lifter ?, You said some are loose is it in any type of order ? , Looking at the manifold you can tell which one is intake an which is exhaust... Let us know what u find

 

Well I been pondering this question off an on today, any chance that the lifters leaked down while ya was doing this repair ??? On older vechiles or high mileage one when they first start up. You get that tick tick tick tick noise fer a few minutes .. Thats cause the lifter's had bleed down over nite an its gotta fill back up with oil , An once its gets full of oil the noise goes away . An now you learned one of them GOLDEN RULES of Auto repair--- NEVER THROW NUTHING AWAY TILL THE JOBS DONE.,,, I'll have to tell its saved my butt more then a few times !!!!, Iam going to go out on a limb here , I hate doing that , I would pull several of the push rods take the loose ones an swap them with one of the ones that you said tightened up , put them side by side an check them . Are they the same length ?,, If all your pushrods are the same length , An you put your rockers back on correctly?? , I'am a betting that you got lifters bleed down , A lifter that has had the oil bleed outta it will compress better than a 1/4 inch. ,,, We would during a re-build soak the lifters in a bucket of oil , An then take a hand squirt oil gun an pump the lifters up by hand before we did an install , Thats my story .....