[tom s]

Look on the bad push rods and see if there is any witness marks where they might have been rubbing against the head and putting them in a bind.Tom

[lust4speed]

...Wouldn't buy anything until I verified everything with a push rod length checker...

Yeah, but if the witness marks on the valve stem are nicely centered, then the pushrods are the correct length. How about a photo or two of what the ends of the pushrods look like. Little strange that only intake pushrods are being abused.

Since the 1.65 rocker puts the pushrod closer to the rocker fulcrum would that cause it to wear?

Nope. I only run 1.65's in everything, and no problem at all with wear. By the nature of the 1.65 pushrods, pressure is 10% higher - but that should be so far below the design failure point of the pushrods as to not matter.

Tom - good point. External pressure on the pushrod could certainly lead to an early failure.