You can use Comp or Trickflow 5/16 x 7.400 inch moly push rods. Stock pushrods have been known to bend at higher RPm with higher spring pressure such as the yellow Z06 springs.

 

My engine only has about 40,000 miles do I need to change the timing cover gasket and crank seal?

 

ZO6 cam has a smaller base circle then standard ls cams have. You won't get all the lift that cam is capable of if you reuse stock length pushrods.

 

what size pushrods are people with the z06 cam running i have done searches and seen many people say a variety of sizes but would like to know what people are using is 7.4000 enough like Whitelightning says?

 

on the z06 heads they used longer valves to make up the difference. same pushrods. use the 7.4" to be safe

 

OK, just to humor us, explain why not

 

when i went through this debate, based off of old info i found posted by parish, among other, you just lose some preload. I did the swap, with 7.400 pushrods, no complaints here.

 

That is correct. I haven't installed my longer pushrods yet, but I plan to re-dyno after I do. The LS6 valves are .6mm longer.

 

I use 7.400" with the ls6 cams.

 

A cam with a smaller base circle then the cam used in the 5.3, is not gonna give you the advertised lift values of the ZO6 cam. I'm not saying it will be noticeable outside dyno testing, I'm just communicating what I found out while researching the best cam for my application. The longer sodium filled valves in a ZO6 make up the difference, to get the same lift value (.550) with a shorter valve you gonna need a longer pushrod.