Best way to mark pushrods for observation
 

What is the best way to mark pushrods to observe them turning while running with valve cover off. Paint, marker, etc.?

Wipe them off with a clean rag wetted with brake clean or paint thinner other than that for oil paints .
Wipe them down just above the top of the guide plate to get the oil off of them and then use a silver marker to make a vertical line.

Be sure to both clean and mark up only when each valve is closed other wise you may loose site of the silver mark you make.

Thank you.

You can also place small white nylon cable tie to the push rods, just be careful when clipping them off that they don’t fall back into the motor.

Easy to observe the spinning pushrods when you sacrifice a couple of Treasure Yard valve covers.

I recently had an clacking noise on my 400. As part of troubleshooting to see if the lifters were spinning, I wiped the top of each pushrod. I used red nail polish and drew a small line at top of each pushrod. When the engine was started, the red line made it pretty easy to see if the pushrods were spinning. You can also check for how oil is spurting out the pushrod. As you know , this can get messy. So, using cut valve cover and other tips can help. I did troubleshooting with the valve covers off. I laid down some tinfoil all around the outside of each cylinder head and then placed some cloths around the tinfoil and even placed some cloths on inner fenders. As the oil heats up the oil splashing can get a worse.
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I had a few pushrods were spinning a bit slower and one that was quite a bit slower. One of my pushrods was also having an erratic oil spurt. I added about 16oz of Marvel Mystery Oil (MMO) and 6-8oz of Seafoam. After letting the engine run 2 or 3 times for 15-20m - the MMO and Seafoam definitely helped. All of my pushrods were turning very close to the same speed and the erratic oil spurt from the one pushrod was gone and my clacking noise was gone :)

We use pen type white out for marking all kinds of steel these days.

I wouldn’t even consider this an option with the paint pen being so readily available and much easier.

try these when running without valve covers if you have stamped steel rockers. Should work on those roller tip rockers that overheat in the ball area (can't recall the manufacturer) Not sure if they would work with solid body rockers.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mrg-1015

Thanks, never saw these before.