I know there are other threads, but, I need a little more information. I just bought this truck tappet noise, so I removed the drivers side cylinder head and found the bad tappet. I also have found a bit of sludge under the valve cover and on the exhaust side of the head. The push rods are also dark brown on the exhaust side. I'd like to keep the truck for another 100k if possible.
Info on truck:

2006 Dodge 1500, 120,000 miles
5.7 Hemi with MDS
All stock

My questions:
What else do I inspect?
Do I replace all the tappets?
Do I replace all the push rods?
What else should I replace?
I know to have the heads cleaned, inspected/tested and new valve seals installed?
What brand of gaskets should I be looking for?

A little guidance is what I need. Its going to be a work truck and I need it to be reliable (not a street rod).

Best Regards,
Rick

 

Go to Rockauto.com and order your parts, they have some really great deals.

Felpro Gaskets are usually very good (Head gaskets) be careful when ordering as to make sure you order a left and right side head gasket, they are not universal from side to side.

Replace ALL of the hydraulic lifters, its not fun pulling a cylinder head to just replace one lifter. Replace lifters with the MDS lifters, rock auto has them for about $190 for both sides. Check push rods & rocker arms for excessive wear, if they look fine or slightly questionable then throw them back in, torque them down in the proper sequence and feel each rocker arm by hand and see if theres any excessive slap, if there is clearances that don't feel right then they probably aren't. If they make noise after the engine has warmed up you can always replace them at a later date of your choosing.

Replace valve seals, that is something that should always be done when a head is off an engine, its a pain in the *** later on other wise and it sucks when an engine uses oil, most of the time its because of bad valve seals.

I may get some flack for this, and a lot of guys may call me crazy, but a lot of guys swear by this and its honestly a bad habit... DO NOT soak the lifters in oil over night! Lifters will self adjust to lash on these hemi engines. When you soak them they will pre-pump up and when the engine runs the lifters will not be able to self adjust themselves and not to mention they can cause false torque readings when you torque your rocker arms down. Lube the sides of the lifters up a bit with your finger in oil prior to installing them in the lifter bores so they're not dry, but do NOT soak them.

 

Thanks for the information! Did you happen to look at the pictures? Should I be worried about the sludge? I know the heads will be clean when they come back from the machine shop, but, should I be inspecting anything else?
Best Regards,
Rick

 

Sorry I didn't see the pics earlier because my ISP has been having outages & slow internet this week because the cable guy tweaked my cable while installing the neighbors new lines.

As for the sludge I'd be sure to run a whole can of seafoam through the engine oil (add it to the oil instead of ingesting it through the intake like normal) and then another one a week prior to your next scheduled oil change period to clean the sludge thats in the block & oil return passages. Running synthetic oil and getting a new PCV valve will also reduce if not rid you of the sludge problem. Some people say that a bad EGR valve can cause sludge issues as well.

As for push rod wear, I've re-used some pretty sketchy push rods that don't have a perfect bulbous end to them (the side with the most obvious wear is always the rocker side on the hemi) mostly because they're easy to get at if they cause a problem or tapping later on, so far since November & 10,000 miles I have not had any problems and I even mixed & matched from another parts Hemi that I had which didn't have much better push rods. If it ever became a problem I'd just buy new push rods & rocker arm shafts, so far so good and my motor runs like a boss! I pound the crap out of it!. The fact that my truck can sprint 0-60 in 6.2 seconds would suggest they certainly aren't hurting my performance

 

Thank you for all the info!!! I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

Sorry so long to reply...Well, I replaced all the lifters, push rods and valve seals. Put everything together and now I get a P0300 code and it runs rough. Any words of wisdom?

 

Problem solved...
Checked compression and the number one cylinder was at zero all the rest were at 150 ish. So i removed the valve cover and rotated the engine and the number intake valve and push rod weren't moving at all. It seems as though the push rod wasn't fully seated in the tappet/lifter. So i reinstalled the push rod, tightened everything (and used the special push rod retainer tool). I rotated the engine and everything moved perfectly. I checked compression and it was 150 just like the rest!!! I put it back together and its PERFECT!!!
Thanks to all who replied!!!

 

I know what happened lol, Pushrods didn't seat perfectly centered into the rocker as it was tightened down. One way to avoid this is to torque it down in a 3 step process and feel the pushrods as you go to make sure they're seating properly. Very glad that it worked out for you!