well thats a bit far,lol. i thought this was a canadian site, no matter thou, I will check on pricing and let you know. so if the guide plates are in the cyl heads, I am good to go? they help keep the push rods in place? I will look it up.

 

The Chev small block originally didn't come with pushrod guide plates. The stock rocker arms pivot on a ball and socket design. They're supposed to rock back and forth but they may rotate sideways. The pushrod is supposed to prevent that rotation but the guide cast into the head is a bit low in relation to where the pushrod meets the rocker. When a hefty cam is put into a stock valve train, torsional stresses increase the chances of a pushrod bending. I've seen it happen too often. Guide plates prevent that from happening.

I'll take some photos of the manifold for you later today.

 

 

I neglected to mention that this manifold is for non-EGR applications and includes the choke adapter plate p/n 8901.

 

well with my car being carb and no computer, no EGR should be fine yes? is that the blocked off ports i see in the pics?
back to the push rod guides, so if my trick flow heads come with them, Im good yes? will I also need to measure for pushrods? or will stock length be ok? hope you dont mind all the questions, I appreciate the help.

 

Yes

Can you circle on the image what you're referring to?

Yes

You'll know that once you get it all assembled. Since you're using hydraulic lifters and stock rockers, you might me ok with the stock pushrods. I've never run aftermarket cylinder heads on my engines so I have no experience with how precise their measurements are compared to factory iron heads. So, were I in your shoes, I would do a test fit. Put a head gasket on the driver side of the block and bolt the head down so that it's snug, not torqued to spec; you're only test fitting. Next, put the cam in with the cam timing gear for leverage (you don't need the timing chain since you're only test fitting), place one lifter each in the intake and exhaust holes for the #1 cylinder. Place one rocker each on the studs for the intake and exhaust valves on cylinder #1. Grab the cam gear with your hand and rotate the cam to make sure that both lifters are on a "flat", the position where both valves would be closed. Slide a pushrod in place for the intake and the exhaust. Put the rocker stud nut in place and make it finger tight. Using one hand, start tightening the rocker stud while checking pushrod play with your other hand. Keep tightening until there's no noticeable play; when you feel the pushrod kinda drag while you're spinning it between your fingers, it's tight enough.

If some rocker stud threads are visibly protruding above the top of the nut and you have lots of thread below the bottom of the nut, you're good to go.

Ultimately, once you complete the assembly, the lifters are given an initial adjustment of one whole turn of the rocker stud nut beyond the initial taking up of slack as I just described. This places the base of the lifter's little piston in the middle of the lifter bore.

 

these look plugged?

 

i guess its possible to use the old valve train, (rockers, pushrods , I have new lifters) out of the 400 I gutted and got ready for rebuild, tp try and save some bucks. I just ordered the trick flow heads today,, yehaw.
what do you think about reusing those parts

 

That's not plugged, it just needs to be cleaned…


The cylinder heads are left/right interchangeable. As such, they have passages for coolant to flow at the front and back. The front is where the coolant flows up through the thermostat into the upper radiator hose. Therefore, the back needs to be blocked off which is what the areas in question do. By the way, here's what the other side of that looks like…

 

I wouldn't. When engines break-in, they develop optimal wear patterns that work in harmony with each other. Mixing new components (lifters and valves) with old ones (pushrods and rockers) is not recommend.