First off this is on my father's Mountaineer (5.0 Ford). When you first start it up it has a constant mild tick. After the engine has warmed up the noise gets really soft (almost inaudible) unless you are decelerating. Then the tick is sounds the same as it does after a cold startup. Is this the sign of a bad lifter or something worse (wrist pin?) If I yank the intake and the valve covers what shoud I look for to spot a bad lifter. FWIW the truck doesn't sputter or hesitate at all. It idles really smooth idle and accelerates just fine. Am I on the right track or should I look for something else first?

 

Do NOT post non-F Body questions in tech, particularly on LT1/LT4 Engine Tech, which is one of the busiest forums. Not fair to the people posting legitimate questions about engines, to have their's pushed off the bottom of the page by a question about a Ford.

Try the "Lounge".