odd tapping

[cjroddam]

well i got her runnin but im hearing an odd tapping from the passenger side. it sounds like rockers tapping valve cover but its not cuz i checked. its erratic, not constant and don't do it till engine warms up? any ideas?

[fordman]

its probably in the valve train somewhere. it just gets warmed up and gets loose enough to tap. what and where i dont know.

[Camper Special Ed]

I had a 460 in my 70' camper special. It did the samething, I finally tore the motor down to find the # 7 piston ring groves where broken.

I hope thats not the case with your truck

[sacramento_ford]

one time i had that tapping, i replaced mechanical fuel pump it went away

[zakt]

same thing going on, on my 460 EFI (thought maybe a lifter?) I have drove it for years like that but seems to be getting worse

[BigEd]

well i got her runnin but im hearing an odd tapping from the passenger side. it sounds like rockers tapping valve cover but its not cuz i checked. its erratic, not constant and don't do it till engine warms up? any ideas?

What kind of engine is it? If it is an FE did you have the rocker shafts off? The rocker shafts on an FE have one special bolt that has to go in a specific hole or the rockers do not get oiled properly. It is a pretty common mistake. Ed

[t-waits]

Some shops have stethoscopes with long needle like ends used for isolating things of this nature. If it is determined not to be coming from the valve train area another thing could be a wrist pin issue as I have seen this before on an FE.

TW

[Sam I Am]

A standard stethoscope and a yardstick also works pretty good for that.