Bent pushrod and bad gas? Been there and done that. The crud in the fuel goes through OK when started up and ran. But when the engine is shut off and it cools down, the crud can set up in a valve guide like superglue. It glues the valve in place. Then next time you turn the engine over that valve is NOT going to move and something has to give. The weak link is the pushrod. If you just replace it, it will just get bent again. Probably immediately.
In my case I bent about four pushrods. The fix for me was to pull the cylinder heads and disassemble the valves. Not all of them were stuck. The stuck ones I had to heat up pretty hot with a propane torch and then tap them out with a hammer. Basically all I did was clean the valves and guides by hand and with carburetor cleaner. Since things were apart I lapped the valves and treated everything to new gaskets and valve stem seals.
Your options? I don't know. I knew my way around an engine when it happened to me. Gotchas I can think of.
The exhaust manifold bolts tend to be difficult and often just break right off.
When you get down to taking the heads off, those suckers are quite heavy and in an awkward place to lift up and out.
To disassemble you need one of a couple of types of valve spring tool. This is one type I favor.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
Another is actually a bit easier to use when heads off the engines.
https://www.toolplanet.com/product/8...hoCvSkQAvD_BwE
One may be available at your parts store tool loan program.
To reassemble you have to have a torque wrench for the cylinder head bolts if nothing else. Best to torque the intake too. The rest of the required tools are normal socket and wrenches mostly.
Gasket are expensive locally, especially head gaskets. Rock Auto tends to have much much better prices on head gaskets at the least.
All doable by a newbie who can turn a wrench a bit. Just have to take care expect that help might be needed with exhaust manifold bolt issues and actually removing the heads.
It MIGHT be possible the disassemble the valve from the top to where you can use heat and (HIGHLY FLAMMABLE) carburetor cleaner to get the stuck valve(s) loose. If you've a mind to try. You'd want to feed some soft nylon rope into the spark plug hole to keep the valve from dropping if/when it came loose. Commonly called "rope trick", you can look it up. They sell an "air hold" tool that does the same thing but I don't trust one myself.
Now that you're scared to death, you might want to have a looksee and make sure you in fact have a stuck valve. Compare the one with the bent pushrod with another. Take the rocker arm loose enough to get at the top of the valve and spring. Depending on your preference or what you have to work with, pry the valve down. IE. compress the spring a bit. Not a lot, just enough to get an idea how much pressure it takes. Now do the same thing on the suspected stuck one.
Alternative to prying is a judicious bonk with a hammer instead. You can feel the "bounce" or not. A brass hammer is preferred, the ends of your valve aren't something you want to be bashing up. If you can hammer a nail into a board, you can bonk a valve stem.
If a valve is stuck like I believe, it's not Ford's fault. This can happen to any brand of engine.
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