Cylinder head refit fail

[hughzt]

I've just refitted a cylinder head to fix a leaky water jacket, however on testing the engine I noted there was no compression on either of the cylinders of this head. Now when inspecting the head whilst off I noticed that there were cracks between both sets of inlet & outlet valves, but I've seen comments that small cracks are not necessarily a problem.
I'm now in the process of removing the head again and have purchased a replacement but have noticed that the push rods are all bent! I reassembled the rocker shaft without adjustment - could this have caused the problem? I'm going to take the head off now to see if there's any damage to the pistons

Andy advice would be welcome.

[CJH]

Is it possible that the pushrods weren't seated in the followers properly? There was a previous example on here like that. If the engine is in situ, it's possible for the pushrods to catch on the edges of the followers - they need to be lifted into the cups during assembly. This would cause the valves to be open all the time, and could explain the bent pushrods.

[hughzt]

CJH, thanks for the reply.

The engine is in situ so I guess you need to wiggle the push rods during reassembly to seat them properly. Previously I turned the engine over with a spanner and it seemed OK, perhaps I didn't do sufficient revolutions to check all the valves.

The head is now off and I can see there is very slight marking on the piston heads where the inlet valves have just touched, but otherwise no signs of damage.
I've straightened the push rods (can't see any available on the usual supplier's sites, they seem to be made to order)

Here are some photos. Not sure what to do now I don't want to do any more damage.

[CJH]

I think in the previous example on here, where the pushrods weren't properly seated, this resulted in it not being possible to wind the tappet adjuster screws off of the pushrods, so this might be a good way to tell if the pushrods are seated properly. This is a post from the end of that thread - all the gory details are on the preceding pages.

I'd be tempted to reassemble and just make sure the pushrods are seated ok. I'm no expert, but like you I've read that those small cracks are tolerable. Probably worth checking the tappet adjustment too, especially since the pushrods have been bent and then straightened. It probably won't have made any difference, but at least by checking them you'll be sure that the rods have seated properly.