oh crap, i was looking at exhaust heads. thanks for that clarification.

 

If someone's telling you that magnetic particle inspection is a repair technique, cover your wallet and run away. It's just an inspection method.

 

Not necessarily their words...since I'm not familiar with this process, I may be misquoting them. Basically, the cylinder head exchange place was a suggestion from 2 of my friends who work at different mechanic shops. I just wanted to throw it out on the forum for feedback. I trust my friends, but more I prefer getting feedback from multiple places. As with most things on my truck, this will be my first time digging into this type of repair.

Since i'll have to remove the pushrods and rocker arms, what do I look for to see if they need replacement? I don't want to have to do this again, like i'm doing with my plenum.

 

Not bent, no strange wear, oil able to feed up thru the pushrods. Make sure to put them back in the same place you took them out of. They like to wear into the parts they are mated with, and swapping them around can lead to some interesting problems later. For as cheap as they are, probably wouldn't hurt just to replace them.

 

As HeyYou said, pushrods are cheap enough to just replace. On the other hand, if they're in good shape there's no need.

The easiest way I know to make sure they go back where they belong is to poke 16 holes in a shoe box, eight down each long side, and draw a big fat arrow on the box showing which way is forward. Then just poke the pushrods into the corresponding holes in the box as you remove them from the engine, and be sure to never have more than one out of the box at a time. "Installation is the reverse of removal".

To check if they're straight, I like to use a piece of glass. Just plunk the freshly cleaned pushrod down on the glass and roll it with the palm of your hand. If you hear ticking as it rolls, it's bent.