The last time my 53 dump truck with original 235 destroyed its fiber cam gear it bent every intake pushrod but non of the exhaust ones
Which is strange because the previous time it did that I had your situation, no valve crashing
So I figured as you did that a 235 is not an interference type engine
When my cam gear failed it stripped a few teeth and the engine made several rotation out of timing at high rpm climbing a hill
Anyway I just put in straight push rods from a donor engine laying around and a new aluminum cam gear, the compression tested fine 115-125 lbs across the engine so it’s all tuned up and running well.
