Guess I’m gonna eat crow as the holes on each end of the rocker arm pedestals are indeed slightly different in size.  I was simply checking the fit with an overflow tube I had laying loose and that wasn’t quite accurate enough for the slight difference there is.  I went back and checked quite a few stands with drill bits and found a majority of them having ¼” holes on one end and 17/64” on the other.  With the Ford part number at the bottom and orientated so it reads right side up, the larger hole is consistently at the top.  I did find some supports that had ¼” in both ends though.  Like John, I’ve also been just putting the assemblies together with the writing orientated so it’s right side up so I’ve never recognized the difference in hole sizing.  If I had to make a wild guess, the slightly larger hole is to make the installation of the overflow tubes through the pedestal and into the rocker arm shaft easier.

I also went back and looked at the sludge buildups in the lower holes in the pedestals on a bunch of the used rocker arm assemblies and it appears to be seepage from the sides of the rocker arms bleeding into the pedestals.  With there being a blind hole at the bottom of three of the pedestals on each bank, there’s no place for the oil to go and it simply just stands there and sludges up.  Not all the blind holes had sludge and there doesn’t appear to be a pattern in regards to which ones sludge up and which ones don’t.  This would be just attibuted to a difference in fit or clearance where the shafts fit into the pedestals.  I’ve observed when rehoning the pedestals for new shafts that the pedestal supports are consistently egg shaped from being tightened.

Lorena, Texas  (South of Waco)