Many thanks to everyone here. The head gasket job went fairly smoothly. After I got everything back together the truck cranked right up. Unfortunately, I now have a slight tick when accelerating. The truck is quiet at idle. Is this something that should work itself out? I took care to keep the push rods in there removed order, but I did put on a remanufactured head with new carbon cutting valves. Other than that everything went on as removed and the noise wasn't there before the gasket job. Any ideas how to proceed?

 

Could be a small exhaust leak or a rocker arm.

 

willrok13,
Funny you should say you have a tick. I completed the head gaskets on mine about a week ago and all went together fine. I did notice that I also have a tick now, although it is at idle and goes away with the application of any revs! I spoke with Disco Mike and he said to keep an eye on it. We'll see what happens. Congratulations on your completion. JF

 

You know, I have a tick too but I refuse to worry about it. If something goes, it goes! Then I'll know what it was and I'll fix it. Period. I think mine may be a collapsed piston skirt... but not positive.

Anyway, I have heard that in addition to the rocker arms, lifters, exhaust leaks, slipped liners, (nobody seems to know for sure if that happens on these engines or not) and whatever else anybody has come up with, I've also been told by the guys at DAP that the valves can wear back too far into the seats and put extra stress on the rockers, pushrods, and lifters which can create a tick. Also, the fuel purge valve can become noisy. The SAI can go bad apparently and make a tick that sounds like it's coming from inside the engine. I'm not sure about the fuel injectors in these trucks but I have had many European vehicles that had ticks coming from the injectors, especially when cold if i remember correctly. So basically... it could be ANYTHING!! If you take some time you may be able to track it down with a stethescope. Or it's at least worth a try.

 

Oh, and by the way, congratulations on completing the head gaskets.

 

Congrats on the completion buddy. I got mine back together and had a tick as well, I switched to Rotella 15W 30 and I noticed today that the tick has subsided. Good luck.

 

Thanks guys. Those are all excellent suggestions. I could try to post a video if it would help. After some thinking, the noise is likely coming from one of two sources. (1) RH Rocker arm, or (2) RH SAI valve.

The right hand SAI copper tube is twisted where the nut attaches to the adapter for the cylinder head (not by me, I noticed it when beginning the head gasket job). Also, I torqued the rocker arms progressively per Rave instructions. Would going back in and tightening the rocker arms help? How can I seal that copper SAI tube? As it is a $200 part, I'm not to thrilled about "trying" that.

At least she is holding coolant!!!

 

thanks frank, Im running 20w50 right now, just bought it, and want to get rid of the tick. Kinda thinking its the exhaust mostly, its pretty rough underneath on cold startup.

 

I'm right in the middle of mine - just finished getting it all apart so I've got a few questions.

With all this talk about "ticks" I'm wondering if that might explain why I found 3 or 4 exhaust gaskets installed on each manifold section?

Assuming other had coolant leaks, did any of you ever find evidence of the source once the heads were off? Mine was leaking on the forward left side just ahead of the motor mount. I noticed when I pulled the head that there was some gasket material stuck to the block right along the coolant channel and along the lower edge below the cylinder (see photo)

Is that just gasket failure and are the new composite gaskets better?

 

Kcab, it is normal to have a many gaskets stacked between the head and exhaust manifold. It is done that way because of the enormous heat that exits the combustion chamber.