Guess what...

My 4 year old decided be Neil Perth and play Tom Sawyer on the water barrels...using my pushrods for drum sticks. My nice orderly pushrods were scattered like Tinker toys, on the garage floor.

Since these are self-adjusting lifters, should it matter which push-rods go where??

If so, why??

LOL, man, thats hilarious! Neil is a great drummer, Ruch is a great band, and Tom Sawyer is an excellent song! To bad he had to use your pushrods. Good luck figuring that out!

It does matter to a point because of the wear patterns on the ends of the rods. Each one will wear a little differently inside the rocker arm. However, the worst that will happen is you will get a slightly shorter life out of the pushrods. If the rods are all in good shape, you will probably never see any difference in how the motor runs or lasts.

If they're in good shape, I'd stick 'em back in. You might want to check them on a flat surface to make sure your son didn't bend one somehow (remote chance).