So I replaced my head gaskets. The truck was running fine before just pressuring up the coolant system. Removed the relay for the FICM and cranked multiple times to bleed the air out of the oil rails. Installed relay and the truck starts as soon as you turn it over but it is miss firing. The scanner says cylinder #5 is under performing. Pulled the valve cover but I do not see any obvious problems. How do I pull the pushrod to check it for straightness? Is it okay to pull the nut from the stud to pull that assembly?

 

I wouldn't remove any head studs at this point.

Did you check your injector harness connection? Worth a look!

 

As Mr. Lewis pointed out, I'd recheck the injector connector and the FICM pins. You could do a starter cable jump to the positive post, and an irregular cadence would indicate a pushrod issue without going wild.

And you would be much better off posting the codes read by Forscan for anyone to really help with the issues other than the essential items already discussed.

Video showing what an improper valve opening situation would sound like,

 

Definitely check all injector connectors, as well as FICM connectors to make sure they're seated properly.

Also, it sounds like you haven't run it long enough to bleed the air out of the HPO system, correct? This might possibly be contributing to the problem...

-jokester

 

Sorry for the delayed response. The small easy things I have already done. I already diagnose it down to the push-rod as the suspect. As it turns out someone (me) did not get it set right in the lifter. Already back together and running like a beast again. Hope it lasts a long while. Thanks for your input.

 

When you put the engine together, did you bar it over for a few revolutions after putting the heads on?

 

How exactly does that happen? Is it up on the edge of the lifter and valve hits piston bending rod or what?

Regardless, glad you figured it out.

 

That's been a common answer, the edge of the lifter, but when I put my engine together, I couldn't see how that would happen. On the other hand, I did push every pushrod down before installing the rockers to make sure they could move the lifter's plunger. And I then barred it over several times. And I used Fel-Pro gaskets if the pushrod hole makes a difference.

If you totally filled the lifters with oil when extended, they could lock in the extended position when screwing the rockers down, and the first rotation would hit the valves and pistons. You can also have issues at the valve stems where the valve is lazy, and the lifter pumps up. You can also have a situation where during heads only, the extended lifter draws in oil in the galley, making it also have the valve hit problem.

Lastly, the service manual specifies when you install the heads to have the harmonic damper at the 6 o'clock position to have all the lifters at the lowest combined setting. Some say they don't do that and never had an issue, but International and Ford took the time to include that in the manual.