Hey all, these Valve cover gaskets have been seeping oil for too long. Now they've gotten oil all over my spark plugs multiple times I bought the parts to replace them.

I know this is a bear of a job, my question is what else should I do at the same time?

I have a ticking noise coming from the valve cover area, how do I go about inspecting each lifter/rocker arms to see which one is causing the tick?

Any tips/advice is much appreciated! Thanks!

 

you would actually have to take off the rocker arms and then remove the push rods one by one and see if one of your lifters lost the prime or can't stay primed. Since you are replacing the valve cover gaskets, go with wires, have the manifolds cleaned to get all the grime out and replace all gaskets you can with that off. There is a ton more but it all depends on how much you wanna spend

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going in there to hopefully troubleshoot that constant ticking. It started when I either over-filled the engine oil, or I put in oil that was too thick - or both. (oops). Is it possible to clean the fuel injectors while i'm in there?

I also bought new coils to install.

Thanks!

 

You can clean/rebuild the Injectors with the upper Intake off but you need to have this done professionally if you've never done it.

You cant get to the lifters without removing the lower Intake so this is what I recommend.

Before tearing down for vc gaskets, put a bottle of detergent in the oil and keep driving it for a couple hundred miles before you change the gaskets. Then switch to 10w30 Rotella after the gasket swap. The ticking could be multiple things but none of them (besides a sticky lifter) are fixable without considerably more work than just pulling the upper Intake and valve covers.

8/10 chances are you have a blocked lifter and cleaning out the blockage will fix your tick. If not, you may be out the price of some oil / cleaner and an upper intake gasket but you won't have spent way to much money on gaskets and labor for something you can't fix on the spot anyways.

 

Mine was ticking when hot. I pulled the lifters and cleaned each one when doing the head gaskets. Still ticked. Tried varying oils it still ticked. This last oil is a combo of dino 20/50 lucas and Risoline. It has since stopped and it was right about the time i put the severe duty 4.6 chevy fan clutch and fan on it. No idea the temps before as my ultragauge had not come in but im in the 200-206 range unless setting in traffic for a long time.

 

You say that a combo of dino 20/50 lucas and rislone stopped your warm engine valve cover tick?I have the exact same issue. What was you mix ratio? I am also planning to do the valve cover gaskets when it warms up. If you do not want to send your injectors out to be cleaned, there are several folks on ebay who sell refurbished injectors:
*3 Year Warranty* 4.0L 4.6L V8 Replacements GENUINE BOSCH Fuel Injector Set (8) | eBay

I plan on going with a set of rehabbed injectors when I do this.
I'm really looking forward to hear about you oil mix.

 

50 weight oil is far to thick. The rislone is most likely what solved his tick, not the oil. If the bearing tolerances in your engine have gotten large enough to warrant 50 weight oil (pretty much impossible to prove with engine in the vehicle) then it's time for a rebuild anyway.

Unless either of you live in Saudi Arabia or frequently drive in death valley, I suggest you stick to a 30 or 40 weight.



But I digress, rislone is some good stuff for solving these kinds of issues. A good detergent combined with regular oil changes of rotella (high detergent composition) will work wonders on your gummed up oil passages.

Try this first and see what it does for you. If in a couple weeks of normal driving you don't see any improvement, then you can go looking for other issues

 

I have use rislone to try and solve my tick to no avail. What detergent do you recommend Koopa?