Originally Posted by aroshan

if the lobes on your cam are worm out than it might be a good idea to replace it, (to check your cam all the way around leave the front cover on so you can turn the main pully to rotate the cam) if you do the engine needs to come out, unless the ac condenser is removed and even in that case i dont think there is enough clearance. if the cam is replaced than so should the cam bearings (D&D fabrication). to get to the cam timing cover needs to comes off and 2 bolts on the thrust plate, which is behind the cam sprocket which holds the timing chain. once you get this far it might be best to replace other stuff. my cam was worm out, and that wore out cam bearings and my thrust plate which also gave my timing chain some play so i replaced that also. the oil pump gears are a given it's like 25 bucks. if your just going to do the head gaskets than the lifters (tappets) are right there on top no need to pull the front cover. i thought the same thing about the ticking noise, turned out to be slipping sleeves. (notorious on the 4.6) here is are some pics to reference.


front cover off



here are your pushrods holding the tappets in place which be being all held in place be the heads and rockers.


sometimes the pushrods get stuck in the tappets slightly which will also need to be changed if stuck or bent. rovherfarm is a cheap source for these internal parts at a very decent price.


best of luck