No oil in filter
 

Man do I fell like a dumbass, when I drained the oil out of my engine I found NO OIL in the center of the filter. No wonder the pushrod was bent. The oil pressure was always good and I was about to change oil and filter anyway when the thing bent. Looks like very little oil a was getting to the valve train, I guess Im lucky thats all that happened. Probably why it was running a little hot too. This engine had less than 100 miles on it. Next time I am going to change oil and filter after I run the cam in.

No oil in filter
 

A lack of oil in the filter would not in and of itself, cause the bent push rod. Lack of oil to the lifters would cause a lot of "clicking" due to too much clearance in the valve train.

The lack of oil in the filter was probably caused by a faulty drain back valve in the filter itself. That would cause valve train noise until the oil pump filled the filter and restored oil pressure to the lifters.

Rev