Noisy lifter after head gasket swap

Cday07

Active member
Hello everyone,

Recently driving the mustang home from an evening out with the misses, the car developed a sudden exhaust leak. I traced it to the head gasket, number 3 cylinder, and proceeded to replace it with a Fel-Pro gasket. No longer have an exhaust leak, but upon driving the car for about a mile, it became apparent there’s a noisy lifter on cylinder 5.

Is this a symptom that will go away with time or is something worse lurking under the hood now? It was fine before the swap, and the head was off the car for about 48 hours before reinstallation. Is it possible oil simply drained out of the lifter and needs to fill back up (I didn’t place any parts in oil while working on it)?

Thanks, Chris
 
You mean exhaust gasket, not "head gasket". I would pull the valve cover and get a visual on the offending racker/lifter/pushrod. Pull the plugs so you can more easily turn the engine over with a ratchet/breaker bar ect and see what's going on.
 
Hi, if you did in fact pull the head, I hope you drained the oil. It is very likely coolant dripped into the crank case and may cause the problem you have.
I have done head gaskets and valve jobs and left the lifters alone in the block.
Most guys keep the push rods in the order they came out. If they got mixed up, that could be a reason for the noise.
If the rocker arm and push rods look Okay I would change the oil, I like Castrol GTX 10W 40, and add a bottle of Marvel Mystery oil.
Good luck
 
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