The other nite's rain down pour, drove through some really deep water, a flooded street, up to the bottom of the truck or more.

The engine started to die and I gunned it some at the end to get through and it died on the way out on dry ground.
When I went to restart, it acted like the battery was dead, I think now it was that the starter couldn't turn the engine with water in some of the cylinder(s).

It finally started and sputtered and then started running like normal but with a loud ticking sound that gets louder with higher rpm's.
Sounds like it may be coming from the lifters.

So is it excessive valve lash, did one of the lifter rods bend or did a hydraulic lifter die or could it be something else?
How easy/hard to fix the noise?...

Dipstick oil looks good, at the right level, no water, slick between the fingers.
170,000 miles on truck.

Thanks for the help.
Jim

 

Id say pull the spark plug and see wether shes completley dry down there

 

Been driving it for days now and it runs smooth-well like usual except it's noisy like it's a rocker arm-rod gap tapping.

Decades ago, on a v8, I used compressed air in the spark plug hole and a tool to compress a valve spring to remove the keepers and replace the oil control seal.

How hard is it on this engine to replace a bent push rod or hydraulic lifter?

 

you have to pull the whole top end apart

rocker arms

intake manifold

valve covers

etc.
and if your in there you should just replace everything

 

what motor its this? SOVC or OHV? I would start to see if you can figure out what cylinder it is. OHV should be pretty easy if its a push rod or lifter.

 

This thread is 8.5 years old. Holding your breath for a response is not advised.

 

It read like you broke a piston wrist pin, or bent connecting rod, from trying to compress water in a cylinder, which is why it acted like starter was dead

Simple test
Unplug 1 spark plug wire, assuming just 4 or 6 spark plugs(not 8), start engine, see if "tick" is gone
If not reconnect that spark plug and unplug the next one, restart
Repeat for all 4 or 6 cylinders

If the "tick" goes away or noise is greatly reduced, when a spark plug is offline, then its a piston/rod issue, not a valve train issue

The cylinder Firing is what makes the noise when there is a piston/rod issue, so with no spark the noise is greatly reduced