Digging into the top end

I need to figure out what is going on with the #3 intake valve.  It is obvious something is wrong.  First step is to remove the rocker arms

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It is obvious the pushrod was beating on the rocker.  I am going to have to look at this very carefully to see if I want to reuse it.  Now lets get those pushrods out.  I took a box and punched holes in it to hold the pushrods in the correct orientation and order.  But when I got to the #3 pushrod I found this:

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The rod is obviously bent and will not come out of the head.  I will have to take the intake manifold off to see what is going on here.

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I drained the radiator and block then started disconnecting things.  This is a little discouraging since I just had the carb off last week.  At least I know where the hoses go.  Before taking the manifold off I went over the whole manifold with a brush and shop-vac to keep anything from falling into the engine.

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I am used to modern overhead cam aluminum and plastic intake manifolds.  This thing is HEAVY.

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Holy crap.  Look at that.  The pushrod is bent all to hell.

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I had to bend it a little more to get it out.  The red arrow areas were bent to start with.  The green arrow is my damage.  I have never seen anything like this.  That rod must have gotten out of position somehow and then just got hammered by the valve train until it ended up folded out of the way.

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The good news is the cam looks good and the lifter is free in the bore.

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The bad news is I can’t get the lifter out any farther than this.  Probably gunk on the bottom half keeping it trapped.  There is no way I am putting this back together without taking a look at it.  But it is getting really late so I am going to wait until tomorrow to work on this.

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