Push rods

Its common for the pushrods to get misplaced and trapped , but that could also indicate a careless PO . So I would carefully check everything .Might be a good idea to check that a valve is not coil bound too.Might need to check the type of cam fitted as this may need rod type to match.

See Attached.........

If it were me, I'd straighten the bent rod and assemble with what I had, and check the valve contact geometry to work out if they need to be longer or shorter.  It won't take all that long, as you only need to snug up the four main cylinder head bolts, and you won't be fitting the carb and pipes.  Also you might find out if the scoring was the result of them being too fat for the pushrod holes in your engine, or the results of them previously becoming dislodged from their cups during an assembly error.

The fat alloy pushrods arrived with the 650 engine in 1961.  As I understand it they might not fit the earlier engines - no doubt Phil will know!

How bad is the 'scoring'?  They are not like con rods where very high tension stresses from inertia effects might cause scratches to become cracks.

As already mentioned , the barrel shaped p/rods appeared in 1961 and it's likely that if you were to try and fit them they would foul up in the pushrod tunnel, but obviously you would check before final assembly.

Hi George.......The fatter pushrods arrived with the 650, 500SS and 600SS engines. Roughly  late 1960 onwards. The barrels had slightly enlarged tunnels to cope with the increased rod widths.  So any pre-1960 barrels will struggle to cope with the fatter rods unless some machining has been done.

When engine producing moved to Plumstead, some of the machining of both barrels and cylinder heads was so was poor that, even in the later engines, the pushrods rubbed on the tunnel mouths, or against the gasket edge or against each other. 

You must be very careful when changing the pushrod lengths in order to avoid the rockers ending up thumping the roof of the head or running out of adjustment.