ticking noise after 1999 4.0 ohv rebuild

[Bretton65]

Hello All,

I had a cracked passenger side head in my 1999 Ford Explorer Sport 4.0 OHV so I bought two new aftermarket stock style heads and put in new eaton lifters, sealed power 5.480 pushrods, felpro severe duty head gaskets, delta cam rebuilt rocker assemblies (they were out of pushrods when I bought them).

I started it back up and no leaks or error codes. However, I am getting a very loud noise that sounds like a lifter/rocker ticking noise. I drove about 20 miles on it but the noise is not going away. It is loud enough that I can hear it ticking at 60 mph on the highway! It sounds like an angry sewing machine.

I read through the lifter noise threads first and see that many members have a lot of experience with this engine noise. The first thing that I noticed was that some members talked about a 5.475 pushrod, and others talked about bad rocker arms.

I greatly appreciate it because it is the first time I have torn into an engine this deeply. I am bummed that it is louder than when I started! I did not have significant lifter or other noise when I started and the oil has been well maintained.

What would you recommend that I look for first? Thanks!

 

[Bretton65]

I may have the answer

I used aftermarket heads that have more metal in the pushrod area and used bigger diameter (Sealed Power) aftermarket pushrods. I talked to Delta Cam about the noise and they suggested it sounds like a clearance issue between the head and the pushrods. I turned the engine by hand before I closed it up and did not hear anything but I looked back at some pictures I took and it looks very tight in there. In hindsight, at the slow speed I turned the engine over by hand the contact noise would be very very low. I bought a set of Ford pushrods that are significantly smaller in diameter and am going to put those in. Hopefully that is all it was.