In another post last week I mentioned a blown head gasket and I was debating to have it fixed or put me out of my misery. A buddy of mine who loves turning wrenches ( and is English) said let's give it a try. So I decided to put my shotgun back in it's case and not put "Winston" down. In taking the engine down we got to the passenger side rocker arm. There is a fair amount of play in the rocker arm closest to the front. No other rocker arm has that kind of play on either side, and I always thought my ticking emanated from that area. I'm not saying that this is my final answer on where my ticking came from, but it sure seems like the culprit. I thought I would pass this on to the forum as I have not read anywhere here about this being a ticking source.
So the next question is replace the whole rocker assembly or just the arm and how did this happen?

 

@matt3502 Old push rod V8's rocker tick is common with age. If it is only 1 arm then you have 4 major possibilities:

1. Arm is shot in which case replace the rocker assembly - I would do both sides but that is up to you
2. Arm is just sticky a good clean might fix it up or it could be loose check the bolts holding the rocker in place
3. Sticky lifter also pretty common - there are few oil treatments people try to clean them up
4. Bad cam lobe -least likely but possible

 

Thanks Richard.
Responding to your responses:
1) How can I tell? It is only the front rocker all the others on the rocker arm do not have any play
2) The there is movement, just the wrong way. If you are holding the assembly and you grab the rocker, it moves laterally ( with spring pressing against it) in addition to spinning on the rocker arm itself. I'm wondering if that spring may be a little tired.
3) Lifter are relatively cheap so I was probably going to replace them.
4) I agree with you on this.

 

If going that deep it's well worth the extra effort to replace the cam and lifters. Even in a 4.0 with a crower cam it's quite noticeable. Disclaimer...still not fast or quick but it pulls through the rpm range and not down low and then nothing at like 2k rpms lol.

 

checking the cam lobe should be easy without taking the engine apart further. Just compare how the pushrod on that cylinder moves compared to the cylinder next to it. Even of the lifter has collapsed, the amount of movement should be about the same (It would just be further down in the tube.