Hey guys
Almost have everything finished on my truck, but the engine has a loud tick at idle and as rpm increase. It is fairly loud when cold and seems to quiet some as the engine warms up.
The sound may be an exhaust leak right? I bought a remflex gasket and am just waiting for it to arrive so I can install it.
If the noise persists though, I should be thinking lifters next right? The engine is an 84.
So, I'm just curious as to the procedure for replacing lifters in this engine.

Thanks guys.

Did you make sure that the hollow pushrods are clean and that oil can travel down the rods easily? A few years back I swapped the cam and valve train in my brother's van from a mechanical lifter setup to a full hydraulic setup. The pushrods we used were given to me by a friend of mine and had sat around for a few years. They were all cruddy but getting my brother's van up and going was an emergency so we just shoved it all in the motor and crossed our fingers.

THe engine started up but the valve train noise was horrible. About half of the lifters weren't pumping up. I added a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil to the crankcase and after a day of driving around the pushrods had been cleaned out and the lifters and valves quieted down nicely.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Unlike the drool tube heads where the lifter gallery is open through the head, with the late heads, you will have to remove the head to replace them.

I never even checked them to be honest. Good to hear that the mmo cleared it up for you though. I think I'll grab some tomorrow when I go into town to get the truck aligned.
If it doesn't, can I pull the valve cover and use a coat hanger or something to push the gunk out of the pushrods?

EDIT:
I read somewhere that you can use a magnet or something to pull the lifter up out of the hole. I guess that's kind of a crapshoot though and you're meant to take the head off to do this job.

Sorry to say, that's the procedure for the drool tube head...the pushrod holes in the peanut plug heads are barely 1/2-5/8" in diameter and the lifters are .904".... I don't think the best proctologist could pull of that miracle...

-D.Idiot

Well shoot. I guess it's not that big of a deal if I need to do it. Just takes time.

All the pushrods check out, all were clean.
One rocker is plugged solid where it feeds the valve and plenty of others are fairly gummed up...could this be the issue?

Absolutely. The lifters are fed by oil that flows form the rocker arm shaft, through the rocker arm, and down the pushrod. If any part of that path is clogged then that lifter will not pressurize and the valve will be loose and noisy.

Some people have had success removing the rocker arms and cleaning the passages out with carb cleaner and/or small pipe cleaners/fishing wire/piano wire. If you do this, be sure to note the order of the washers and spacers on the rocker arm shaft to get them all reassembled correctly.

Definitely try cleaning the rocker arms before you pull the lifters.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.