We found a new rocker arm and swapped a pushrod to check everything out. I appears we did not get as lucky as we first thought last night. The valve with a bent pushrod is not going up and down the full rated lift. I will post our findings after we get the intake off but I fully expect to see a broken lifter/lobe.

Ryan Norton
was the swapped in pushrod the same length as the one that bent?
a couple of possibilities.......first off, what cylinder # is it? didn't chevys tend to wipe out cam lobes on # 7 and/or 8?
if it's not going to full lift, but is returning the valve to a fully seated position, then you may have a wiped out cam. bad news, as the metal had to go somewhere.....namely all through the engine.
if it's not going to full lift, and the pushrod isn't going all the way down by itself, when you know you've got the cam on the base of the lobe, try pushing it down. if it goes, then the lifter is moving ok in its bore, and you've probably got a bent valve.
now, of course, this brings up the question of how the valve got bent. lash could've been too tight, if the pistons had to be machined for valve clearance, they could've been slightly off.......
i'm really interested to see what happened now.
good luck sir!
john