Lifter tick after head gasket change

[blu3fan]

Just changed the head gasket on my 4.6 stroker, 2500 miles and it blew the head gasket
Drove it to my brothers house, it was not leaking that bad bad.
Did the change, on the initial startup the intake manafold turned out to be not seated correctly, heard it the second it turned over, it ran at most for a second, checked my work and fixed it.
Started her up again and there's a loud tick it's located at about the 4/5th cylinder. (Before the gasket change I had noisy valves I had assumed was due to the comp cam and mopar valve springs I have in there and had heard they are noisy
Pulled the valve cover.
All rockers and pushrods are solid, everything looks great felt for wobble anywhere, nothing.
Also I checked all the bolts on the rockers and they are tight.
Ideas please.
Here's things to consider also, I'm using yella terra 1.6 roller rockers. Since I did not have the Allen key torque wrench adapter I did them up tight with a large Allen key, I know they are 20lbs so I did them up to what I would consider 20lbs I'm sure it's close.
Tomorrow I'm going to get the part and retorque them. But I doubt that's it for some reason.
Ideas on the matter. Coolant in the lifters ?

[Cheromaniac]

Coolant in the lifters ?

Possibly but I think your real concern should be about why your engine blew the head gasket in the first place. Did it detonate? Running too lean? Blocked radiator? Stuck thermostat?

[blu3fan]

The car blew the head gasket for two reasons I believe, one was an eBay headgasket. And it was torqued down then removed and retorqued down. That's the reason I believe it blew, going to remove all lifters today and put it all back in after soaking them in oil

[SilverXJ]

If there is coolant in them you may have to compress and decompress them a few times. You will need to use a drill press or something because that won't happen by hand. Just letting the soak in oil won't help. Best bet is to disassemble, clean and then assemble and prime them. Also, make sure you keep them in order and in the hole they go into.

[blu3fan]

All rockers are now torqued correctly, all pushrods pulled out and checked for any change, nothing. No loose rockers or anything that shows any difference to before. Seems to be coming from the intake rocker on the 4th cylinder
. The only other thing I could possibly think of is this. I doubt it, but want input. When I removed the head I did not have any dowel pins in there, if it was possible that one fell into a cylinder and is bouncing up and down causing the noise ? But by my understanding the engine would blow a piston on startup right ? If this was it.
Suggestions?

[blu3fan]

Okay. So. I've done some research and this is what I have came up with.
One. Found a spark plug that was dead. Fixed it. Cured the little idle issue and made the tick 50% quieter.
I'm starting to believe its piston slap based upon what I'm reading. Possibly caused by difference in thickness of hg ?
It sounded like a diesel a little bit before but now it sounds like a full blown diesel truck.
I need some insight here since I'm stuck on this.

[SilverXJ]

When I removed the head I did not have any dowel pins in there, if it was possible that one fell into a cylinder and is bouncing up and down causing the noise ?

If a dowel fell in it would not be an even sound. It would be a random rattle and will cause major issues. I doubt that is your problem.

. Found a spark plug that was dead. Fixed it. Cured the little idle issue and made the tick 50% quieter.

Check the wire as well. a Faulty wire will cause a tick as well. Wait until its dark or put in the garage with the lights out. Start it up and look for blue sparks near the wires. What caused the spark plug to go bad?

I'm starting to believe its piston slap based upon what I'm reading. Possibly caused by difference in thickness of hg

Piston slap has nothing to do with HG thickness. And unless there was a problem with that cylinder it wouldn't be isolated to that cylinder. Piston slap usually sounds more like a dull thud than a tick.

I would try to move the rockers and push rods around and see what happens. See if the sound moves from #4 to where ever.

What pistons do you have?

If you isolated it to a single rocker your culprits are: stuck lifter, bend pushrod (roll on glass to check), damaged rocker, valve guide failure, bent valve, or some problem with the valve spring.

[blu3fan]

Figured as much with the dowel. Just had to say it cos i only have 6 years experience building motors. What u don't know right...
When I said spark plug I meant wire. Just being a derp in my typing today. The wires terminal was pushed into the rubber foot around it. Must have happened while I removed them. I then checked all the others for spark and it's all good.

Okay so since I built the thing it's had a noisy valve train, which is odd considering I'm on roller rockers is odd. But I'm thinking that's due to the mopar springs and comp cams cam.

If I open the oil fill hole and look at the showing rocker, every time that rocker pushes down the tick happens.
That's a really smart idea to trade the rockers and pushrods around ! Going to try that on Thursday when I go back over.
The head was machined along with valves. A mere 2500 miles ago and all the springs are brand new along with everything else on the head.
I did not roll the pushrods over anything I just layed them straight, lined up, all looked good, but if it could be the slightest bend, then I need to check, pushrods I think they were some offbrand certainly we're not high performance.
Will get back to you on Thursday with results. Thanks !