Pushrods

Are all steel pushrods chromoly?

Mine are about 25 years old. It is taking me a long time to get around to using them. I am about to pull them out and check them with a magnet.

I was told to adjust the valves to .004 with them but I keep reading about setting chromoly to loose zero.

All steel push rods are not chromoly.....however, the heat expansion rates would probably not be terribly different....Larry Jowdy could probably shed more light on this.....

Larry was one of the people I was thinking about when I posted the original message.

Michael, I can't answer for 25 year old pushrods but the likelyhood is that they are chromoly.

On any engine that I know that has chromoly pushrods, I set them to "0"

I'm not sure there is an easy way to tell their composition unless you go to a metalurgist which is impracticle. Pushrods are relatively inexpensive so if you decide to purchase new then just make sure you get the correct length

Larry,

Thanks for your reply.

I got these from Gene Berg with other engine stuff. I set the length for my 1.4 ratio rockers.

I wonder if the term "chromoly" was used 25 years ago for pushrods.

Maybe I should talk to my daughter who has a PhD. in materials science about expansion rates.

I tend to think it is chromoly; 20 something years ago the term was around in the VW industry and being that you got them from Gene Berg would make me think so (that's what I got a couple of years ago from them). As Larry says loose zero is the magical number for adjustments.

If they are Gene Berg pushrods (circa 1980) then they are chromoly.

Thanks.

I was going to buy one of those individual feeler gauges with a handle.

I guess I don't need to.