Pushrods......How bent is "bent"

[thefarmboy21]

I was adjusting the valves on my motor today after a head swap and noticed that my rocker arms kinda had a shimmy to them while spinning the pushrods. I took one out and rolled it and it seemed fine. Then I put it against a straight edge and up to a light.....it has a SLIGHT bow. It mean I'm talking paper thin light exposure in the middle and then when rotated a little, slight exposure on the ends. So I grabbed a couple from two other motors randomly and got basically the same results. SOOO.....are they really considered bent? Or are they just straight within SPEC? Because I highly doubt parts store Melling ball tipped pushrods are as carefully tested as Comp Cams 7/16 hardened pushrods. This is basically a stock 350 with 9-9.5:1 compression and a Comp 4X4 cam with .447x.462 lift. Nothing special, just a truck motor that will rarely exceed 55mph. I just want to know if I need pushrods or not. 

[NCali]

once a push rod bends it starts to develop a weak spot at the bend. That being said I would take them out and replace the ones that wobble

[Captkaos]

roll them across a flat surface like a glass pane and check them.