first time head swap, now engine ticks please help

[bleeatch]

I just got my engine back together after doing my first head swap on my 89GT. I read alot of articles on swaping heads before hand, and asked questions about any confusion i had during the sawp. over all it felt like it went pretty smoothly and when i went to start it back up, it started right up and idled just fine, however, it makes a ticking sound on the passenger side, sounds like its comming from cylinder 4. Also there is white smoke comming from the same area, looks like its comming from below the header. Anyone have any ideas of what it might be? Ive already taken off the valve covers and rechecked all the rocker arms, they were fine. Took out the spark plugs they were fine, and drained the oil, no chocolate milk look or metal shavings, oil pressure was good too.

My combo is a stock bottom end 5.0 HO, e303 cam, edelbrock performers with upgraded springs, 1.7rr with stock push rods. previous to the swap i asked about clearance issues, and was given the go ahead by many people. I guessing the only thing i can really do at this point is strip it all back down and take the head off to check it out. Anyone have an ideas on what it could be, anything ideas will help? THanks!

-Allan

 

[poneypower89]

Im by no means an expert. But I know that exhuast can make very weird noises if there are any leaks. Considering there is smoke coming from your header its possible you may have an exhaust leak from improper sealing.

Again, I'm no expert but exhaust leaks have been known to sound like a ticking rocker before.

 

[poneypower89]

Actually, do you mean its coming from below the header and not actually from the bottom of the header?

 

[cardudeusa]

How long did you let it run? Is it possible the smoke could be oil or grease from your hands when you were working with the header, and its burning off? Like ponypower89 said exhaust leaks can sound like a rocker arm also. See if you can pin point it. Did you replace the lifters when you did the swap? If not one of your old ones may be bad, and that could be your noise. Just a few ideas for ya.