I am new to this site and am in need of some help. I purchased a 88 f-150 2 weeks ago and it has a rebuilt 302 in it w/less than 500 miles on it. When I purchased the truck the guy I bought it from told me that it needed a new exhaust manifold doughnut gasket. As I was driving it home it I kinda stomped on the gas just to see how much power it really had under the hood, when I done this the sound got worse like it finished blowing out the doughnut gasket, and now it sounds like a helicopter going down the road, I have only drove it one time since then. I went and got the gasket and when I went to put it on I found out that the exhaust manifold itself has a built in gasket since it is cast iron. So I took the gasket back and went and got a new manifold 'well a good one from the salvage yard' and brand new manifold gaskets from Auto Zone thinking it might have been a cracked manifold, yet after doing all this and changing spark plugs it still sounds like a helicopter. And the noise is coming from the left side manifold area. Could it be a lifter causing this noise or am I over looking something? If anyone could give some advice on what to do or if they have had this problem themselves and tell me how the cured the problem it would be greately appreciated.

 

Hi Jeremiah, help is here in the FTE forums.
Be sure to swing by and see what`s up in the local IL chapter soon with your intro: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum122/