Reply to "Ticking valves?"

Several things come to mind here.

First. You seem to have eliminated the likeliness that the push rod tip and the rocker arms are at fault. But what you need to do to be sure is unbolt each rocker arm and examine the tip where it contacts the valve stem and the push rod. If there is a very distinct wear pattern of the valve stem on the rockeer arm, replace both the push rod and the rocker arm.

Next. Ford hydrauliclifters will eventually clogup mostly do to long periods of disuse and lack of regular oil changes. They have plungers in them that are pushed to the proper operating height by oil pressure. Often they will develope obstructions of gum deposits that restrict these internal movements to full height. They could be cleaned sonically but it is much less expensive just to change them.

Also. It is possible that someone installed a fast bleed-down hydraulic lifter like those made by Rhodes. Usually these are used with a race/radical timing event camshaft in a street used car to give it an acceptable idle. They would not be necessary with the stock camshaft and in fact would be the wrong lifter to use with a stock camshaft but who knows what the last owner had done to the car? Some people have very strange concepts of what is correct to do.

The Rhoads lifters require an adjustable valve train of some sort. The only way to have an adjustable valvetrain with the stock 351c bolt down pedestal design would be to use a shorter pushrod and use shims between the pedestal and the rocker arm. I doubt this is the setup that is in there but you would be the only one that would know at this point.

I would guess and say that the most likely solution to your problem is going to be to replace all of the lifters, pushrods and rocker arm assemblies.

Make sure that you use a engine oil that has plenty of ZDDP in it. I would also suggest that you use a full synthetic oil like Mobil 1. It is not going to have problems with breakdown from long periods of disuse. You will have to add ZDDP as an addative to it. It is formulated for the US market with the EPA emmissions requirements and ZDDP has been reduced in the oils drastically in order to protect the catalitic converters.

If you don't use it, it is very likely that you will have a valve train/lifter/camshaft failure. In fact, lack of ZDDP could be a contributing cause to your current problem.

Good luck.