The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Pushrod question

What is the purpose of the pushrod inspection plate on the side of my 235? And before any wise cracks, I KNOW the plate allows you to inspect the pushrods! My question is, what should I be looking for, both good and bad? This is the first time I've taken the cover off (I'm replacing the gasket), and am wondering what I should look for while I'm in there.

The oil return holes seem to be free from obstruction. The pushrods seem fine to my inexperienced eyes. Everything is covered in a black oil film (like the dirty oil kind) but I think that is normal.

Any help from experience would be nice. I'd hate to button it back up without taking advantage of the opportunity to inspect or clean something.

Would it be worth trying to clean up that area in there? I'm going to be dropping the oil pan next, so it seems like it would be ok to use a solvent in there to clean up the black film. Or maybe this would do more harm than good.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Rather than access to "inspect" the pushrods, I believe it's access to replace them and/or the lifters if necessary as well as giving access to the rocker oil line. Having said that I've not had the side cover off of a 235 but I'm assuming it's purpose is the same as for my 216 which I have had off.

That makes sense Tiny. So since my engine is running fine, there is nothing to really do or inspect in there. What about cleaning it up--I can't think of any value in doing it unless there is obvious debris in there?

Thanks for the help.

I'd say just put the new gasket on & button 'er up.

one little tip i found was removing the distributor before i installed the gasket........the cover with gasket on it inserts easier that way...........ive done it with distributor in and had to squeeze over it.......just a thought..........

You will want to be very careful about trying to clean it up. Don't move the crud in to the oil pan.

Is there a thin oil line running from bottom left to upper right? If so, you might want to remove it by unscrewing the ferrule nuts and clean it out with compressed air before you seal the cover back on. That is, if someone hasn't crimped off the rocker arm oil tube under the valve cover and run an auxiliary line around the block.

I will be dropping the pan before I start her up again, so I'm not so worried about that, but thanks for the advice. I see some oil return channels that I wouldn't want to clog up.

49 Geez, yes, there is an oil line in there. Is this one that commonly gets clogged up? I don't have a compressor (yet), so I may have to wait on cleaning it. I can always just take the valve cover off when the engine is running and make sure healthy doses of oil are squirting up there, right?