Mike,
from your experience, when dealer does the head gasket job and valve cover gasket, do they clean any gunk from valve train area if present or they just take the old one out and new one in and that's it?

The reason why I am asking is, that dealer did my HG, valve cover gasket, oil pump gasket and oil pan gasket before I bought the car. The car must have been overheated pretty bad since I have burned oil/varnish on my deep stick, don't have any issues other than the ticking right now, but was just wondering how they clean the engine after its overheated?

 

it depends on the technician but by itself removing the heads and everything else its gets cleaned. but with the ticking its most likely not any dirt or debris in the oil pump. I would take it back to them to find the problem.