[Jimbobeast]

Originally Posted by johnta1

!st thing is check that the push rods are not hitting/rubbing anything all through its travel up and down. (pushrod guide should just be wider than pushrod and the closed end of the guide should not hit the push rod at all)

2nd thing is check that the rockers are not hitting /rubbing anything except the push rod cavity for the push rod ball and the end of roller does not touch anything except the valve tip. (roller doesn't run off end of tip of valve, etc)

If it was mine I probably would have bought chromoly push rods that has no balls on it.

It all looks good, John, I can't see any rubbing or witness marks on the pushrods. The rockers also appear to have no interference.
First thing to recheck will be the open pressure, then I'm going to re-adjust (if possible) the pushrod guide plates to get the closed end of the opening as far from the pushrod as possible.
After removing all the pushrods, 3 balls had fallen out and almost all showed visible signs of the balls being crammed down ointo the shafts. This has been the same on all 3 sets of stock pushrods (again, 11/32, 9.2" which came stock on the RAIV). All are breaking at the rocker end. If it was too much spring pressure then at least one of these 48 rods would show damage at the lifter end, right? To my thinking, something is happening between the guide plate and the rocker arm pushrod seat. Could the geometry be off and the rockers torqueing the top of the pushrods against the guides at full lift? Remember, this motor has not seen 2000 RPM and these pushrods are disintegrating after 15 moinutes of break in.
I'm also going to remove the plugs and slowly turn the motor by hand and carefully watch pushrod and rocker travel. I will probably just go back to a stamped steel 1.65 rocker, since the only thing unchanged through three broken pushrod cycles are the rockers.
I've ordered chromoly pushrods but I'm afraid the cam will get wiped if the original pushrod material is not the problem.