Hey fellas, hoping some of you more experienced fellas can help me out. Let me start from the beginning so you have all the details. We eneded up having to replace the timing cover on a truck i just bought ('79 Ford) it has a 351w in it. After tearing off the water pump and the timing chain we realized the chain needed replaced. it had alot of slop and we wanted to do it right so we replaced the chain. No biggie. After carefully timing it, and chaining the oil in the process, also added plug wires. We put it all back together to find the motor seems to have a small tick. It NEVER had that prior to the plug wires, oil change, and timing chain. We did realize that a few of the plug wires weret securely on the distributor cap and it did quiet the tick down a bit (dont know if that has jack to do with it) my brother is very smart with vehicles and doesnt believe its a rod or lifter. He thinks its an exhaust leak. The manifolds are pretty rusty....BUT the tick occurs at idle, and throughout acceleration. We havent even drove this truck on the road besides around the block prior to the change. (Its a project) So i just dont understand how a rod or anything couldve possibly went bad. Anyhelp would be appreciated very much

 

Sounds like your oil change might be the culprit. What weight oil did you use? And what kind of filter?

 

I used a Bosch filter and the store had the wrong oil in wrong slot, didnt realize it until after it was bought for awhile, I think one was 5w-30 and another was 10w-30, but don't quote me. should I run a different weight/ viscosity?

 

5-30 and 10-30 might be too thin for a worn engine. You could try 10-40 or even 20-50. A bottle of STP oil treatment might work too.

 

Agreed.
Have you a mechanical oil pressure gauge? If so, how's the pressure?
Try not to forget the zddp additive at every oil change, if needed.

 

I do not have a mechanical pressure gauge :/ unfortunately, but my brother says we used half 10w-40 and half 10w-30, should I go thicker? or just try some stp oil treatment ?

 

A bottle of STP is only about $4 and you can put it in right now. It helps a lot sometimes.

 

. Prolly an exhaust leak or spark plug wire put back on in the wrong position... or a wire still off...

. Make sure distributor rotor is correctly positioned and not bumping anything... cap on straight...